Elderberries

Who has one of these trees?
Mine has not flowered yet this year and I am wondering if it is already past that time or could it still yet flower.
I have an Emerald Lace that is about 4-5 feet tall.

This TAMU site says elderberries bloom from May throught July.http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/nativeshrubs/sambucuscanaden.htm
It doesn't say anything specifically about Emerald Lace,but I'm assuming that it would be some time between May and July also.

All the elderberries around here are done flowering or almost done and now setting fruit.

Mine has fruit.

I planted an ornamental Elderberry and possibly that is the problem. I just purchased a native as well.

My black lace elderberries bloomed months ago but the varigated one I bought three years ago has yet to bloom. Next year is their last chance - no berries and they move out to the compost pile.

I know what you mean!!!!

Yeah - ya just can't get away with just being a pretty leaf anymore! LOL

your black lace will never produce berries. It's ornamental only and does not produce berries. neither does mine, there is the southerland gold elderberry that does not produce berries either.

Don't put them in the compost, there are people here on daves that will trade you some nice stuff for your ornamental elderberries. such as the black lace. they are beautiful in the right setting. Shame mines not in that good setting lol

But they are huge! I cut back the branches that were growing onto the garage roof today! Anyone that wants them can have them now that I know there won't be berries.

I have a Sambucus nigra - Sandvil - that I got for the flowers and fruit in the spring of 2009. It did have some flowers this year, early in the spring, but no berries. The nursery didn't know whether it needed another tree for pollination; do yours?

Bayflora specializes in them and they say they will fruit with another variety.



http://www.bayflora.com/elderberries.html

Thanks, Jujube! That says that they are self-fruitful but will yield bigger crops with a pollinator nearby. It also says that the type I have, which is the European variety, needs to be cooked before eating to destroy problem compounds, while the American variety does not. That's a good resource!

DH planted a bunch of native elderberries near our pasture; I wonder how close the pollinator has to be.

I have a couple of mexican elderberries. The silly things grew (not just didn't die, grew) all winter, snow and all. I had blooms in the spring like normal, then nothing when it was hot and dry, and blooming again after the July rain. Very little fruit from the spring blooms, but I think that was a pollinator issue.

YankeeCat, you may be able to ship them to someone who wants them even though they are big- you may be able to trade for something you want!

In Peace Corps Forestry in Ecuador, South America, I'd grow teak and mahogany to about knee-high. Then I'd cut off all but about an inch above the root collar, and three inches below. This allowed root development without having the plant dry out from evapotranspiration; it would grow leaves later.

I used this method for lots of plants since then, I recently did not have luck with plumbago, but I usually have good luck, especially if this is done in the fall when the tree is going into senescence for the winter- more nutrients are stored in the root then. I would think a plant like elderberry would do OK. Can't hurt to try, and sure is alot cheaper to send a small section of root!

Susan Mc
Jackson MS

Good idea, thanks.

Black Lace only looks good in springtime at my house. It turns brown in the sweltering heat. Native elderberries on the other hand are thriving in moist low areas on my property--they form large hollow canes within a single season. Peak fruit was about 3 weeks ago with large panicles of tiny black berries. I eat them fresh but a better use perhaps is to make preserves or wine or elderberry syrup for a natural cold medicine (google this and you will find many links as to how to do it)--you have to work fast once fruit starts ripening as the birds decimate the crop!