Top, I am not a right person to answer this question but I had a similar idea. What I learned before is that a new seedlings grows and blooms the first time, maybe the second because sometimes the first bloom is not a typical one, then the seedlings has to be divided because the flowers after division can change. It take another 3-4 years for divisions to flower.
I agree there are so many similar cultivars, so if ones wants to register a new one I feel it should be really different. Maybe they ARE different, it's just impossible to judge looking at a picture of a flower. Bush presentation, disease resistance, ,other traits are not visible at a picture.
