how do orchid genetics work?

[diego_p]

I was just thinking that next year I might try to actually propagate orchids from seed. The first thing that came to mind is that I want to buy a Bl. Morning glory and cross it with my brassavola nodosa. But that wouldn't be much of a cross because morning glory is already made up of B. Nodosa with L. Purpurata.
So i was wondering what would the outcome be? And how diverse are the orchid genetics? If I did a cross like that. Would I get like a Bl. Day and night lady or something? Or could it be so diverse that I could get a simple genetic like a nodosa and a Purpurata by itself?
because when I think of genetics, the reptile hobbyist pay of me kicks in. If I need a bumblebee ball python to a pastel ball python I would get some pastels, super pastels, spiders, bumblebees, and killerbees.
(For those that don't know, a bumblebee ball python is a color and pattern mutation produced when breeding a spider to a pastel.) So breeding a pastel to a bumblebee could be broken down like (pastel x spider) x pastel. so you see you're getting a double dose of pastel to get some similar results of what you started with plus some more complex results like the killerbee.
I know this might be a lot and probably doesn't make too much sense, but I'm just trying to understand how orchids genetics really work. It'd be cool if it were similar.