Difference between two orchids
 

Can someone tell me the difference between Burrageara Nellie Isler and Burrageara Nelly Isler 'Swiss Beauty' AM/AOS - and why one would be preferred over the other?

One of the name of the cross. Any seedling from that cross is nelly isler.

The other is a cultivar. A seedling that cross with outstanding qualities. Only clones of that one seedling can have that name
The AM/AOS is the award it's received in the past I believe.

see you could have your plain Burrageara Nellie Isler and grow a nice bunch of flowers and you could get an AOS award. Then if you wanted to you could name it Burrageara Nellie Isler 'Cewal'. Then forever thru out orchid history everyone would know this was your plant .It will live in the digital void of the internet for an eternity of bits and bytes :biggrin:

and for every piece that's grown from your plant or divided from there forward it will have this name.

Hallelujah and Amen! :biggrin: Don't forget about greges... :dance:

Yeah! Those damn pesky grexes!

To put it another way, say you pollinate (also known as 'crossing') Plant A with pollen from Plant B.

From this cross, you get 20 seeds. All of the plants that grow from those seeds will be named whatever you want. You could name it Plant Cewal as Squirrel mentioned.

Now, say, all those 20 seeds grow to maturity. They all have different traits: some are tall, some are short, some grow quickly, some slowly, some have many large, perfectly formed flowers, and others have fewer not-so-perfect flowers. There can be an amazing amount of diversity in one group of seeds!

You select your favorite out of all those 20 plants and name it 'The Best'. It's just gorgeous, and you take it to the orchid show and the team of American Orchid Society judges agrees with you. They give your plant the Award of Merit from the American Orchid Society (AM/AOS). From then on, this plant has credentials! That award will be appended to its name as well as any division or clone taken from it. Your award winning plant will be forever known as Plant Cewal 'The Best' AM/AOS.

In your case, Burrageara Nelly Isler could be any one of those 20 seeds we talked about earlier. Some were nicer than others, remember? But 'Swiss Beauty' AM/AOS is one particular plant that stood out from the rest, and was awarded by AOS judges.

Now, which would you rather own? That part is entirely up to you!