I planted elderberries in the back corner in a damp area. years ago my father in law and i spent all day up in the thumb gathering them. My wife made the best jam and Pa"s wine maker freind made the best wine. The birds love them. I pick them and eat them fresh for the health of it. They are not the tastiest berries fresh but good for you.I dug mine from the wild and a freind donated some. I have the red and black varieties.Leave the unknown berries . some varieties of viburnums are edible and some are not. If you can grow them try some of the service berries. If you can catch them at the right time they are very good but you have to keep the birds away. Usually i just share them. Happy gardening Johnny

Hi and thanks for your response. The tag mentions zone 4. I shy away from anything 5 or higher, especially since often they don't bother to say whether they mean USDA zones or Canadian zones and if they are USDA then I need to look for a zone 4. I'm confused about this plant because there is a particular site that shows Thundercloud as USDA 3B and Black Lace as USDA 4A, - a site I'm not allowed to mention here, yet there are other sites that show Thundercloud as 6. Obviously you are growing Black Lace and it doesn't seem like it is dying to the ground each year. I was considering Black Lace, but the foliage seemed black as opposed to burgandy. Would you say your Black Lace has leaves darker than, say a Purple leaf Sandcherry? I actually have had a regular native elderberry for about 8 years. The birds must have dropped seeds, and recognizing what it was it I moved it to a spot with more room. It is alive, but is no taller than 3 1/2 feet. Perhaps the deer eat it off each winter. Mary

probably transplant shock ... or damaged at planting ... or transporting home ... or it get a little too hot from the black mulch.. in other words.. not hardened off to its new environ ... i am wondering also.. if the mulch it too deep at the trunks ... bottom line ... it looks great for what it went thru .... dont go all LOVE IT TO DEATH on it ... one thing for sure.. its not hungry ... so fert wont help anything ... ken

One possible clue is that I have two plants that have not been affected by this. They are the only two cherry tomatoes (sweet baby girl, which by the way I highly recommend). The others are a mix - early girl, beaverlodge slicer, katana, tasti-lee. Here are photos of the entire setup and one plant. If they look leggy, it is mainly because the lower branches have been pruned because of this problem. I only fertilized once since planting because the miracle grow potting soil is supposed to have fertilizer in it already. They do seem to be a bit light in color, but I am not sure if that is just the varieties. Different varieties do have different colors. The sweet baby girls that are thriving are a much darker shade of green.