Yug

Kevin, where the heck did you get the idea that you can't mericlone hybrids?!? Someone has grossly misinformed you about that. You can mericlone hybrids or species. Any orchid plant that you feel is attractive enough to take the time and trouble to preserve it, can be mericloned (except slipper orchids - they are all seed grown AND more expensive because of this). The original Den. Anucha Flare was seed grown, but unless you have a piece of the original plant (that piece would be called a division) all the rest were the result of the mericloning process because from the original cross, there were no others worth keeping around so those were never cloned. The best one was mericloned, and the others have long since disappeared. But, sometimes when you have cloned a clone of a clone of a clone of a clone, etc. the genes get screwed up. Each individual from a mericlone has the same name. Again, I don't know where you are getting your info. If it is a mericlone, it would never be given a different name. That would be like taking credit from someone else's work.

If you cross two different plants (species or hybrids) for the first time, that cross is given a grex name. Within that grex, or that cross, you can have different varietal names. That is not the same as mericloning - it sounds like you have the two confused. For example: Blc. Fortune X Cattleya Horace resulted in Blc. Goldenzelle. Blc. Goldenzelle is the grex name, or the name of the cross made by Blc Fortune and Cattleya Horace. Any time those two hybrids are crossed, it will never be given a new grex name, it will merely be a re-make of Blc. Goldenzelle. That name will always be used for that cross from this time on. However, within the grex, you can have many different varietal names. Here are some: Blc. Goldenzelle 'Lemon Chiffon' (probably the best known of the grex), Blc. Goldenzelle 'Taida', Blc. Goldenzelle 'Passion', Blc. Goldenzelle 'High Noon', Blc. Goldenzelle 'Orange Pumpkin', Blc. Goldenzelle 'Full House', Blc. Goldenzelle 'Apricot Charm', Blc. Goldenzelle 'Saddle Peak', etc. Now if I took, say Blc. Goldenzelle 'Orange Pumpkin' (a hybrid by the way), and mericloned it; all the resultant plants MUST be given the name Blc. Goldenzelle 'Orange Pumpkin', and unless the cloning process screwed up a gene, there will not be much variation in appearance. Den. Anucha Flare is a rare exception. I have personally seen 3 of the mericlones blooming all at the same time, and all were different. If I didn't know they were clones, I wouldn't have believed it. There is even wider variation than the ones I saw.

Hope this helps.