Sambucus (canadensis and nigra)
Elderberry is a very exciting plant for us. It puts on some of the most stunning growth in a good year. Quite possibly the fastest growing plant we have. We've seen 8-10 feet of growth in a season, after pruning the plants back thoroughly at the end of winter. They offer incredible habitat, food, medicine, nutrients and shelter for birds, bees and others. Their profuse, flat, shallow flowers make for a perfect nectar source for wide range of pollinators and beneficial insects. They can form potent visual barriers, nutrient absorption plantings and can handle periodic flooding and high water tables that challenge most other plants. Oh yeah, and they make massive amounts of fruit that is medicine! The market and interest in Elderberry products seems to be growing rapidly, so this plant can also make a valuable addition to a young farms business plans.
They are also one of the easiest plants to propagate, simply taking a pruned branch and pushing it into soft soil (ideally in the fall but works just fine in spring, too), they will root and grow into copies of the original plant. Scroll to bottom for a video showing how simply it can be done!
We're offering a few named cultivars as rooted plants as well as low cost cuttings you can propagate yourself. We encourage you to research each type to get more detail, but here is a snippet of what each type is about:
'Marge' - American and European hybrid elderberry (fruits on 2nd year wood). Incredibly vigorous, fast growing, has large, sweet and very medicinal fruits. Considered a self-fertile type from our research. This is a very reasonable core variety to establish in a landscape for reliable, large and sweet fruit early in the season.
'Ranch' - American type with a compact habit getting to about 6' or so for easy picking. Incredibly productive on 1st year wood. Unique foliage and dense habitat makes this a unique type for sure.
'York' - Standard excellent producer, gets large and needs friends for best pollination.
'Scotia' - Beast of a grower to 12' and makes large, excellent quality fruit considered one of the more sweet and large fruits.
‘Johns’ - Nice standard production type. We find it to be quite vigorous and interested in suckering/spreading which can be a very positive attribute if you want your elders to fill out more space.
‘Edible Acres Select’ - This is a slightly lower price option and lets us pick from our wide array of named cultivars and seedlings to pick you a nice looking elder. We have some varieties we lost tags on and some seedlings that have no ‘name’ to begin with but are all absolutely amazing.
'Champion' - Edible Acres discovered seedling that produces robust growth with nice sized to very large sized fruit on some 1st year shoots but primarily 2nd year shoots. Most likely is a child of Scotia mixed with some other varieties in our mix.
'Bidie' - Edible Acres select seedling that is mid/late season ripening with large, wide heads of small but incredibly numerous fruits. Seems to be an absolute favorite with our feathered garden visiting friends, hence the name. Has promise as an excellent wildlife supporting variety. Most likely York and other parents in the mix.
CUTTINGS DETAILS:
The cuttings bundle we offer will have an assortment of 10 ready to root cuttings of a mix of the following varieties... We will source from Scotia, Wyldewood, Johns, York, Marge, Ranch, and quality wild select elderberry types we have on site. You can request specific cuttings or we will bundle a mix based on what we have available, with at least 3 varieties represented for excellent production and pollination in your garden! We send you cuttings of the same or higher quality than what we use for our nursery. Named/Tagged varieties available upon request. Otherwise we’ll provide you a healthy ‘medley’ that will group pollinate quite well (generally labeled ‘Elder Mix’). Cuttings are at least 4” long with a growth bud at top ready to sprout, but generally longer. Scroll down to see a video showing just how easy this process can be!
If you are looking for specific types of elder in cuttings form, we offer that as well. 10+ cuttings packs of specific varieties are available. Please be aware that planting out just one variety may result in limited fruit set.
Looking to get going with a small elder orchard sooner than later? Look at our super cuttings bundle. For $50 we’ll send you at least 30 (closer to 40 :) cuttings of a wide mix of our best varieties. Properly cared for this option can become a serious elderberry orchard in just a few years! Again, we are happy to label each type upon request, or by default will offer a genetically diverse and healthy mixed population (without individual labels)
‘Grade B’ cutting packs can be super economical ways to get things happening on a limited budget. Absolutely viable and alive but perhaps a little on the thinner side, maybe bent, maybe a ding or two, these cuttings are $1 a piece but we almost always pile in a bunch more. Save money, give a scrawny cutting a chance and ramp up lovely numbers!
We also have European Elderberry cuttings available in packs. We work with ‘Samdal’, ‘Samyl’ and ‘Alesso’ and an order of European Elder cuttings will get you some pollinating capable mix of the three.
Size:
Different varieties have different sizes. In general you can expect plants to reach between 6' and 12'. Ranch is shortest and Scotia is biggest based on our experience. All varieties are manageable with pruning.
Site Preference:
Seems to like a lot of sun, but can do well in the partial shade as well. Will enjoy richness in soil and ideally a moist position. Pond and stream edges in rich muck are their happiest place! We’ve also found that so far Elderberries can live under our Black Walnut trees and still seem to thrive and be happy.
Hardiness:
Zone 4, perhaps even zone 3
