Loved your comment about it growing all over the place "like an octopus"! I have a first-year planted S. nigra 'Purpurea' which has done just that. I intend to chop it back quite hard in a month or so. I think that the deal with pruning these plants is that you need to decide whether you're growing it for foliage or flowers/fruit. If for foliage, then you'll get larger, more brightly coloured leaves if you cut it back hard in spring. However, you'll lose the flower-producing wood that way.

Hi GG,kept meaning to update you about this but never got 'round to it sorry. Anyway,have to say this is an amazing plant,no-wonder it was 12 years in the making though I think it could be the victim of it's success. It's just so easy to propagate(though obviously a patented plant)I've tried cuttings..soft wood,hard wood & a bit of both and with great success without any special requirements(moisture/heat etc.) As you rightly said the plant did put out strong shoots from the base.I noticed one of these at the back was perfectly upright and vigorous so kept it and removed the others.About 4months later it was 8ft high! It was amazing to think that all you could see was the results of just a few months growth.In autumn I then dug it up and turned it around to bring the new stem to the front.It sulked for a while but never looked under threat.It's flowering now as you can see and I fully expect it to start pushing growth strongly afterwards(it usually does)then I can start deciding about the branching(it's still a bit narrow and upright presently)However now it's quite big it's already like a big dark shadow in the garden,and I know they can become very big,so I'll see if I wish to keep it large or not. Oh yes,I took two of the other strong shoots(about 2'5ftx3/8") and stuck them in 9cm pots on my windowsill...believe it or not they rooted easily!...the photo shows them shortly after taking next to a few normal sized cuttings.I had to put them immediately into larger pots if only to stop them falling over ha. As always,thanks for your advice GG,I really don't know how you find the time to answer all the queries on the forums ...truly a most unselfish act :)

I fear that the choice of plant puts you at a disadvantage from the off. Your shrub looks like Sambucus 'Black Lace' or similar cultivar. This is a vigorous shrub hailing from cool, moist, temperate climates which can potentially reach 8 feet with a large root ball. I am afraid that trying to grow it in a small pot (and it is small for an elder) on a roof top in NYC is going to be a huge challenge. You refer to 'only' 80 degree heat. That is incredibly hot for elder. Even the wild ones here droop in that kind of temperature and they have roots down in the moist ground. Basically your elder is being cooked. It will need a much bigger container, something like a half barrel, much cooler temperatures and copious watering to survive.

For some curious reason, I have had nothing but success with elderberries (all S. nigra) - my first plant was a bedraggled left-over at a year-end nursey sale about 8 years ago, and it got unceremoniously dumped into a pile of poor soil in a back corner (I was looking for a cheap way to screen that pile!). . . It survived the winter, with no help from me, and just sort of "sat there" for that first whole summer; the second season, it seemed to perk up and threw out some foliage, actually tripling in size. Today, it is HUGE, fully 12' tall (almost as wide), glorious in leaf (it's S. nigra 'Guincho Purple') and in flower - and I've never done anything for it! No extra fertilizer, no extra water, nada - this beauty did it all on it's own. . . Since that early surprise success, I've added other S. nigra ('Variegata' in partial shade, 'Black Lace' with more compact growth and wonderfully feathered leaves, 'Black Beauty' which is just amazingly dark, especially when the pink flowers explode) and all are doing well. . . I have recently learned a startling maintenance suggestion (and had it corroborated by several other sources): these elderberries benefit from severe pruning in late winter (one source even said all the way to the ground!) - my original 8-year-old specimen will be my guinea pig this year, and it may take care of the very woody stems that have developed over time. Incidentally, try starting off with the smallest (and cheapest!) speciman you can find - once settled in, S. nigra, at least, is a fast grower. . . this season I'm branching out to try S.racemosa 'Sutherland Gold' which completely seduced me when I saw it in a botanical garden last year. . . Good luck! Carl Here is a link that might be useful: Lazy S'S Farm