We had a couple black sambucus that were lovely for a couple years, then they started not doing well. I don't know what we did wrong or what conditions weren't right. Our soil is pretty sandy and we have an irrigation system. We had a row of mixed elderberry shrubs of different varieties and only a couple remain. We've replaced them with viburnums.

I tried out the black beauty sambucus 5 years ago. Two of them from Bluestone (so they were small). I have the opposite type of soil that Vtandrea has - more clay than anything else. They too were on an irrigation system. They just never took off. One of them died - just didn' come back one spring and the other I got frustrated with and dug it up and traded it at a plant trade because it just wasn't growing for me. Hope you have better luck than I did!

I had Sambucus nigra "Lacinata" and tried for three years to get it to grow with no luck. I also grow Sambucus canadensis which does fine. According to my book "Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs", they are both weed species, canadensis in America and nigra in Europe. He also says that the nigra doesn't tolerate the heat as well as the canadensis.
I really like this shrub (sambucus canadensis). It has a lacy look and the berries are loved by the birds. They also can be used in pies and jams.

For what it's worth, I have a considerable amount of wild / native elderberry in my yard, both red- and black-fruited varieties (which I'd love to ID for you, but I see there are numerous species/sub-species, so I won't try!). Both are prolific but also short-lived. It's not uncommon for a plant to have 50% to 100% die-off in a year's time. The thickets I have maintain themselves, but they're full of dead individuals and lots of dead wood. Seeing as they seem to be quite happy in my yard, I'm guessing that lack of longevity is a trait of elderberries. (I have clay loam that is slightly alkaline - sugar maple hardwood forest. The elderberries grow naturally at the perimeter between woods and lawn.)

Regards,
- Becky Hart
Minneapolis

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

Sorry: the link worked when I previewed it, but not after
posting - just go to the Tree/Shrub section of the
Lazy S'S Farm web page: www.lazyssfarm.com

C

I grow Black Lace and think it is lovely. Mine gets very little attention and has impressed me with its ability to get along on its own.

It's been planted since the fall of 05, so isn't terribly old.

Here is a link that might be useful: Scroll down to read about Black Lace

It's been interesting reading all these efforts to grow elderberry shrubs of various types. We chose our original 8 or 10 bushes after reading about them in Fine Gardening magazine about 10 years ago. They were touted as easy to grow and great for attracting birds. What we didn't know was how fragile the wood is. You don't need to prune them, you can just snap off a branch! Viburnums are better, IMO. And just as pretty.

Elderberry vs. viburnum. . .hmmm. . .can't say that I like
one better than the other. . .but I do have seven different
viburnums, interplanted with the five elderberries! Just
a shrub-loving' fool :)

I don't have any of the "black" varieties, but several each of Adams and Johns. I have found that those in an area where it stays a bit more moist seem to do better for me. These varieties tend to sucker and I let them go within reason. I try to prune out about 1/3 of the oldest canes each spring. Hope this helps.