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  • From: Louisa Rogoff Thompson <louisathompson@erols.com>
  • To: NAFEX <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [NAFEX] elderberries
  • Date: Wed, 06 Apr 2005 12:55:31 -0400

Doc,

Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is a native shrub with a wide range.  I live in the Maryland piedmont and see it growing wild in drainage ditches and along rivers.  Typically it does appear to be about 6' high as you describe.  It is a deciduous woody shrub, with stems much more substantial than those of a blueberry but, like a blueberry, it produces a few new canes each year, and some of the older ones die, especially after a severe summer drought or maybe after a hard winter.

When I first started growing fruit, I ordered two elderberries from one of the big fruit nurseries.  I think the varieties were 'Adams' and 'Johns'.  They were described as tall, and indeed they got much taller than the local ones, probably 12'.  I don't know whether there is any significant difference in flavor - mine didn't taste like much.  The wild ones, being shorter, would be much easier to harvest.

Wild or cultivated, they are so ornamental both in flower and in fruit (each lasting 4-6 weeks) that I never wanted to harvest them!  They have other virtues, too:  they tolerate water flowing over their roots, so can be used for erosion control, e.g., below a downspout, and they are also fairly drought-tolerant.  Their only drawback is that they do send up an occasional sucker, at quite a distance from the parent and very difficult to dig out.  You'd have to cut if off repeatedly, or use herbicide - and I don't know if that would harm the parent tree.

Elderberries have become one of my favorite multi-purpose shrubs - I highly recommend them.  If you don't want one of the tall cultivars, try a native plant nursery - or try growing them from seed.  They probably need to have the pulp removed in order to germinate.

Louisa Thompson
Gardens that Work!
Columbia, MD, Hardiness Zone 7b

Date: Wed, 06 Apr 2005 08:48:44 -0400
From: Doc Lisenby <longdistshtr@shtc.net>
Subject: [NAFEX] Elderberries Question
To: nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <008401c53aa6$f81ab850$ba704ace@arc9v69shpnmrx>
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I drive past a house periodically where there is a  tree about six feet tall 
which bears a very heavy crop of what appears to be elderberries every year. 
The owner is never home for me to ask him or her what variety it is or 
whether it actually an elderberry.  It is fenced in and I can't get closer 
than about ten feet to it.
I remember seeing wild elderberries in the Pine Barrens of New Jersey 
similarly bearing such crops but they were annual bushes if I remember 
correctly.  I have tried several varieties here in South Carolina without 
getting near the amount of berries this specimen bears.  Anyone have any 
ideas as to what variety this could be?  Or if it is possible that a similar 
species could be mistaken for elderberry?  The leaves look just like 
elderberry leaves and the berries are the same color and size.
Doc Lisenby
Zone 7/8 




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  • [NAFEX] elderberries, Louisa Rogoff Thompson, 04/06/2005

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