Hello fruit friends I need some advice on Elderberry. A friend of mine has an elderberry bush she planted that flowers but she never gets berries because she only has one. This year I offered to bring her some flower heads from mine so her flowers can get fertilized. I have York and Nova flowers to give her. I also rooted a York for her to plant so hers will have a friend for next year.
At what point should I cut and bring the flower heads? If i bring them right before they open and put them in water will they still open or should I wait until they are fully opened? Will that possibly work for fertilizing her flowers if she keeps them in a vase close to her plant?
I would wait until most of the flowers in the head are already open. The pollen doesnāt release until after opening, so picking any earlier would limit the effectiveness.
That said, are you certain your friend has an American black elderberry? If it ends up being a European black elderberry, the pollination from āYorkā or āNovaā may not do much.
Assuming her elderberry is American like yours, I would recommend dabbing the flower clusters together for pollination rather than just relying on bugs to move the pollen from the flowers in a vase. Basically just touch the face of the flower heads together like theyāre kissing. This method has worked well for me.
johns definitely will. ive had suckers off my 3 yr old plant send them 8ft. from the mother and thats with me pulling the roots with the suckers to keep them from going further. if you want a constant row of elders, johns would be one to trial. very productive and vigorous with 0 input on heavy clay soil. only mulched for the 1st 2 seasons to control weeds around it.
I noticed my local āElderberry Treeā todayā¦ and im curious if anyone else has seen one? I am a fairly avid fruit hunter and have seen many thousands of elderberries growing as small shrubs or thickets but ive only seen one ātreeā. Supposedly it only takes 5 years to get them into a tree?
Pretty amazing specimen for at least pollinators or wildlifeā¦birds etc. My local tree has well over 1000 maybe many thousands of cymes. (small though)
It really just seems to come down to whether or not anything happens to the main trunks. Iāve seen quite thick trunked, tree like elderberries around here, but inevitably at some point in their life they get damaged and revert back to being smaller, multi-trunked shrubs.
might be a euro elder. they tend to send up less suckers than the americans and can grow pretty big and old. i have 6 marges that are in 2nd leaf that some are already 5ft. they are supposedly open pollinated hashbergs. may have misspelled that. its a euro. german cultivar.
That has massive flower clusters! Is that a euro? We have probably thousands of elderberries growing around here and Iāve never seen one clusters that big.
The tallest American Elderberries in the woods by my house are probably 15ft+. Some of them are only a few years old. They arenāt as pretty like that one, but I would definitely consider them small trees. There are some standalones in cow pastures that I have seen like that though, they look gorgeous.
my johns has cymes that big and when the berries start to size up the whole thing hangs upside down.12- 14in. cymes are common on it. my 2yr old 5ft marges are growing cymes right now for the 1st. time. they are supposed to have big berries and cymes as well with some bushes/ trees up to 20ft tall. weāll see . elders really like growing here and readily reseed everywhere despite me not seeing any birds on my berries.
i tried training 3 different american elders to grow like that but they send up new shoots from the roots as soon as i prune anything on them. maybe marge will be easier to train as euros only fruit on 2nd year growth.
lol! my cymes are just coming out right now. you have to like to prune to control johns. i take out nearly half the smaller mis shapened branches and it still produces heavily. if some cymes get swd in them the chics love them.
Yeah, neither of us knew it spread, but sheās happy about it. It had 4 suckers that were probably 2-4 feet from the crown that shes pretty sure the neighbor came over and cut off at the ground. So sheās pretty mad about it. (They were each about broom handle thick)
She wants it to get huge for wildlife in the yard.
I need some advice on Elderberry. A friend of mine has an elderberry bush she planted that flowers but she never gets berries because she only has one. This year I offered to bring her some flower heads from mine so her flowers can get fertilized. I have York and Nova flowers to give her. I also rooted a York for her to plant so hers will have a friend for next year.
