Breeders do look at what genera may be related enough to breed. Genera get grouped into "tribes" to try to capture that information. But they will also try things that might push the envelope of relatedness. The ones that end up on the market are the successes. The failures are harder to learn about. Also, especially within large genera, the genus may be divided into "sections" to describe relatedness. For instance, within Dendrobium, species in different sections are usually not related enough to breed even though they are in the same genus.
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