Most of the registrations for cultivars state that to retain the plant's characteristics, they should only be vegetatively propagated.
I grapped a CPN (vol 33, #3) and looked at several of the new cultivar descriptions.
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]This cultivar should be propagated vegetatively to maintain its characteristics
for Sarracenia 'Katerina'. 4 of the 6 plants being registered in that issue had similar statements. Ironically, one of the 2 that didn't was "Big Easy" but it may have been assumed since Joseph stated that this clone has never flowered in his experience.
From what I have seen, it is much safer to assume that any cultivar should only be vegetatively propagated (to maintain the cultivar name). Production of seed is obviously possible but plants produced this way should not carry the cultivar name.
Some registrations state that plants
can be propagated sexually (but they seem to be an exception).
As for the argument that as long as the characteristics are maintained, then it is the cultiver: many times the characteristics are not obvious to the lay person. Several years ago, when I grew VFT 'Royal Red' & VFT 'Red Dragon' side by side, I could not see any differences. When I posted that 'innocent' observation to the listserver, a taxonomist-type person proceeded to politely list all of the differences that he had observed (many of which were completely incomprehensible to me).
This pretty much served as a lesson for me to keep my mouth shut unless I figured I had a clue...