Have some lilac irises and anabelle hydrangea I could trade for hellebores and any that you may have of the following: Jack in the Pulpit, Trillium erectum, Trout Lily (Dogtooth Violet)or Erythronium americanum

Three more common reasons that leaves scorch on the tips are: late freeze, fertilizer burn, too much water. It could be fertilizer burn, but if you have been watering frequently, especially if your soil is heavy, that could do it, too.

LOTS of misinformation going on here!! Elderberries - Sambucus species - are self fertile. You do NOT need two different varieties to get fruit but you will have much larger and more reliable cropping if you do. This is the same for any sort of self fertile fruit. These are caning shrubs - not trees - and do best in full sun and with reasonably moist soil. Raw fruits is perfectly edible but so astringent as to be virtually unpalatable. That's why most sources recommend cooking or otherwise 'preparing' the fruit, rather than eating fresh. Red elderberries (S. racemosa) are seldom used for berry production as they tend to be less palatable than the darker berried forms and reportedly are toxic if eaten out of hand (although they taste so bad fresh, I can't imagine anyone doing so!!). btw, as long as bloom times coincide, black elder can cross pollinate blue or American elder. Elder flowers are wind pollinated. And blue (S. caerulea) and American (S. canadensis) tend to be the tastiest and heaviest croppers of the various species.

So my Black Lace Elderberry is making some progress, but it has some unusual growth habits I wanted to clarify. The main stem appears to have just died, and all the growth is coming from side stems to that. Additionally, any time this plant goes without water and the soil is dry for even two days, it kills off one of the minor stems entirely. Is it normal for this species to have so much dieback, particularly on the main stem? Should I just cut the main stem off completely, and maybe if I do that back to the point of the living stem it will promote another offshoot? P.S., Notice in the second photo the ends of the largest leaves are starting to turn purple. P.P.S., I have a "Wandering Jew" planted in this planter, which is probably a failed experiment because it is such a fast-growing and dominant plant. But that is the dark purple leaf you see around the edges.