Black Elderberry

Size, growth and what to expect

Black elderberry starts slowly and then runs. The USDA fact sheet says seedling growth is rather slow in the first year, after which established plants soon outdistance the weeds. After that it is a fast grower, and our growth estimator gives it nearly three feet a year in its youth on an average site. It makes an erect, thicket-forming shrub 6 to 12 feet tall and usually wider than tall, spreading by root suckers.

Flowers form on canes in their second year. Fragrant creamy white flowers open from June into August in flat heads 4 to 10 inches across, and the purple-black berries ripen from late July into September. Each berry is under a quarter inch across with 3 to 5 small seeds and crimson juice. At least 50 kinds of songbirds, game birds and small mammals relish the fruit, and the thickets make outstanding nesting cover for small birds.

It grows wild across the eastern and midwestern United States and southeastern Canada, along streams and in the bottomlands beside them.

How to grow Black Elderberry

Black elderberry grows in full sun or part shade, on average to wet soil. A damp ditch or a low sunny corner suits it, and fruit sets heaviest in sun. It suckers into a colony, so allow 6 to 8 feet between plants and keep it 10 feet from walls and paths.

Plant bare-root saplings while dormant, fall through early spring. Dig a hole twice the width of the roots, no deeper, with the root flare at grade, and backfill with the native soil. Mulch a ring three inches deep, kept off the canes. Seed needs a warm spell and then a winter. Clean it from the pulp and sow it outdoors in fall a quarter inch deep, and seedlings come up the second spring. For a spring sowing, keep it in a damp bag for two months at room temperature and then three to five months in the refrigerator.

Elderberry roots are shallow, so water twice a week in its first summer if the ground dries. Rabbits chew young canes and deer browse the foliage, so cage the plant for the first two years. From the third winter on, remove dead canes and any cane older than three years, or cut the whole bush to the ground every few years.

Elderberry is partly self-fertile, but two seedlings set more fruit. Birds strip the berries as they ripen in August, so net if you want a crop. Cook the fruit before eating it, and leave the leaves and stems alone; both are toxic.