Melly Thanks for the recipe. I have all but the juniper berries. I'll try without them and let you know what I think of it.

You are in a much warmer zone than I am, but in my garden, the red elderberry (Sambucus pubens /aka S. racemosa) blooms decidedly earlier than the American elderberry (S. canadensis), which has dark, purplish-red berries and is used for jam. I grow the former one for the birds. Are you referring to S. caerulea when you say "blue elderberry" or S. canadensis? We don't grow caerulea here.

I still have a good amount of non-native plants in my landscape, but I've decided to plant just native from now on. Without significant research of each and every nativar out there, and more that are introduced each year, there's just no simple answer to your question. Nativars have been known to spread or interbreed with local native plants displacing native flora. Sometimes the nativar can support local species, but sometimes not. It's a crapshoot. By planting naturally growing native spieces, it assuridly eliminates any possible negative impacts. I have Canadian elderberry in my yard. I consider it to be one of my most beautiful plants. Cultivated in the garden, it's much more stunning than in the wild IMO. I think the white flowers and red/black berries against green leaves are prettier than the dark leaves with pink flowers of the cultivars that you're considering, but again, that's just my opinion. I can appreciate you wanting a plant that gives a punch of color to an otherwise green landscape. Having said that, I often suggest to people that they not plant burning bush because it is invasive. They say to me that it is not invasive in their yard. I tell them that the birds eat the fruit and spread the seed to natural areas. They say they have never seen fruit on their plants. I say that the fruit is inconspicuous. My point is, you just don't know if the plants in your garden are invasive by simple observation.

No, it wasn't uprooted for any length of time at all. We dug it up, put it in a nice big plastic pot with soil, brought it here and immediately planted it. I've never heard of the elderberry borer, have heard of borers before, just not an elderberry borer. It never looked like it needed water, it just looked stressed after I replanted it here. It had established roots in TN, only to be dug up and replanted, establised roots out at my parents, only to be dug up and replanted here. I really wasn't surprised when it lost all its leaves, and was a little freaked thinking I'd lost it, but then came the the new growth and it looked fine. It never looked like it needed water. We had a heck of drought here this past spring and summer, but I watered all my plants so I wouldn't lose any. I'm just really bummed it's looking dead. I will leave it to see if next spring it doesn't resprout. Oh, and I've been using a root stimulator on all my plants. I just wish I knew what happened! Thanks! Terry