The seamy underside to a nursery’s existence is commerce: plants have to sell, and generally the longer it takes to get a plant to a saleable size the less profitable (or, indeed, the more money- losing) it is, the less likely it is to appear for sale. Veratrum, as a genus and to a plant, is refined elegance made manifest, but generally so slow to grow to size from seed and/or so unproductive from division that it’s not often seen for sale. We are trying to use the relatively quick to bulk and flower V. formosanum as a parent of hybrids in an attempt to produce plants that are more nursery friendly yet no less elegant. This seedling represents an early attempt with V nigrum, and though there’s a trace of daddy in the flowers and inflorescence branching, it ‘s not the perfect intermediate that we hoped for, and “reads” more like a superlative form of V. formosanum. As it’s also only minimally faster, we only have a few divisions to offer: the nurseryman’s money-losing lament. Cultivar name courtesy of ChatGPT Z6 Quart pot