Elderberries

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Elderberries (Sambucus canadensis) are one of the best native shrubs that you can grow in your home landscape. Their benefits are many:

  • The summer fruit is beloved by at least 50 species of songbirds, game birds, and small mammals.
  • The fruit is used for jams, wine, syrup, tinctures, and juice. It is filled with vitamins and antioxidants and helps to boost your immune system. Elderberry syrup is used for throat ailments, colds, flus, and to help singers or public speakers keep their voices healthy.
  • The flowers are a valuable source of nectar for beneficial insects.
  • The flowers are used to make elder flower water, wine, and liqueur. The flowers are also used in creams and cosmetics.
  • The pith of the stems of the elderberry is very soft. Solitary bees (native bees, essential for pollination of many plants) lay their eggs in elderberry stems.
  • The hollow stems have traditionally been used for flutes and other musical instruments.
  • Elderberry plants spread by suckering, thus making them an excellent habitat plant for hedgerows.
  • The suckering habit of elderberries makes them ideal for erosion control.
  • Elderberry is both a butterfly nectar flower and a larval food plant for specific species of moths.

Elderberries will grow 10-15’ tall and wide but can be kept shorter by pruning. Elderberries send up young canes each year; these canes develop lateral branches in the second year. The flowers develop the second year in terminal clusters on last year’s wood, both on the tips of the canes and on the tips of the lateral branches.  In our area of CT, they bloom in June. Pruning is easy. After the third year in the garden, prune out some of the older canes to the base to keep the plant vigorous. You can also cut back elderberries that have grown too tall. Hard pruning will sacrifice the flowers and berries for one season but will help your plant remain compact. Another option is to lightly prune back some of the canes each spring to shape your plant.

Since elderberries spread by suckering, if your plants begin to spread too far, you can dig up the suckers in the early spring and make new plants.

Locate elderberry plants in full sun or partial shade. They grow in average garden soil and will grow in very wet, clay soils equally well. They prefer a pH of 5.5-6.5 and are right at home in most of our CT soils. When planting, amend the hole with Penobscot Blend compost and Sustane 4-6-4 organic fertilizer. Water with liquid seaweed or sprinkle Myco-Bio into the planting hole to encourage lots of feeder roots. Mulch well with shredded bark, leaves, or other organic mulch.

Berries ripen in late July and August. The stems of the fruit are not edible. When harvesting berries, clean them well, removing all of the stems. Birds will eat the berries. Watch your fruit crop carefully and pick ripe fruit often. You can net the plants, but it is much more fun to plant lots of elderberries and share them with the birds!

 

In an effort to provide horticultural information, these educational documents are written by Nancy DuBrule-Clemente and are the property of Natureworks Horticultural Services, LLC.  You are granted permission to print/photocopy this educational information free of charge as long as you clearly show that these are Natureworks documents.