Have some extra space in your yard? Elderberries are a great, easy shrub that will provide food for your table or for the birds.
Both the flowers and the berries are useful. Flowers can be harvested to make an herbal tea believed to be a remedy for colds, fever and flu. You may have heard of the product Sambucol, a flu remedy. It is derived from the elderberry and takes its name from the Latin name for elderberry, Sambucus.
Elderberries like a sunny location with lots of room to spread. They thrive in fertile, moist soil. Young plants should be set 6-10’ apart. Elderberries are more productive if there are at least two different cultivars located within 60’ of each other for cross pollination.
It is important to control weeds around elderberries when they are first planted. The roots are shallow, so hand-pulling or mowing is recommended. Better yet, mulch around the plants to prevent weeds from growing at all. Do not allow mulch to touch the stems of elderberries, or any other plant including trees, as that promotes stem rot. Once the elderberries develop into a hedgerow or clump, they will suppress the weeds on their own.
Elderberries bear large clusters of white or cream-colored flowers in late spring. The flowers have a sweet baby powder smell. The flowers soon turn to green berries that ripen to red and then almost black.
The berries are higher in phosphorus and potassium than any other fruit we can grow in Wisconsin and are also high in Vitamin C. Caution however – the berries have a mild cyanide toxicity until they are cooked or processed, and the stems and leaves are also poisonous. The fruit is completely safe, though, when made into jams, jellies, pies or wine.
Berries are harvested in August through September depending on the cultivar. Remove the entire cluster and strip the berries from the cluster later. Some people use a kitchen fork to pull the berries from the stems. If you have a problem with birds getting the berries before you harvest them, cut the clusters a day or two before they are fully ripe and set them in a warm place to continue to ripen. Use them as soon as they ripen.
Because of the shallow roots, winter damage can sometimes be a problem for elderberries. Here again a mulch comes in handy. Don’t worry if some canes are lost to the cold – the fruit forms on new growth so even if damage is severe, the crop is seldom affected.
The only pruning necessary is to cut out dead canes in spring and to cut out old canes when the bushes become crowded. An abundance of suckers can be kept in line by clipping or mowing. Transplant suckers if you want new plants in another location. Elderberries are remarkably free from disease and insect pests making them wonderful landscape plants.
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