Black Beauty Elderberry

Do any of you have one of these? If so, would you please post with pictures in the plant files? I just purchased one and am anxious to actually see one. I have seen pictures but don't remember where. They are all black with pink blooms.

Look under Sambucus nigra 'Black Beauty'
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/56909/index.html

I have a few photos. I'll try my best to locate them and load them but I don't normally load until the dead of winter when I have more time. I think I took them this past May but really never got around to adding them to the Plant Files. My photos look about the same as the member who posted above but I do think I have one close up of the blooms.

Thank you so much. That is just beautiful. I can hardly wait until mine gets that big. Please post when you can.

Jeanette

How big is yours? I'm curious as to how fast it grows.

It's in about a 3 gallon can. I just bought it. But, look at the picture in the plant files that Equibilium posted. Isn't it beautiful? Believe me, if it grows as fasst as the regular Elderberries do, it won't take long to get a nice size.

I have just bought 2 and planted them in front of a varigated chartreuse 'Madonna' Sambucus. I think in the garden setting the grouping will highlight the Nigrans. These are the babies waiting for next year.

Your grouping is going to be so beautiful. I don't think you are going to have to wait long.

My problem is that i have several slash piles, from logging, that have to be burned so I don't want to plant anything until that is done. I just may have to winter them over in the containers they are in. Darn it, I will lose all that time that they could be establishing root zones.

The reason I bought them now is that I got them half price. They were $24.00 so for $12.00 I really couldn't wait.

After seeing yours Soferdig, I was thinking I just might plant mine near the Keria I just bought. It is a vareagated. The 2 together might be pretty nice. But, after the logging I have space between the trees that are left that I thought I just might plant things like these 2.

Gotta do some thinking.

Take advantage of the winter root development by increasing the pot size or B&B. Then bury them in your compost pile to encourage root development all winter. That is what I do with waiting to plant specimens.

This is the sambucus "black beauty" from the mixed shrub border at the entrance of the Denver Botanical Gardens, 9/30/2006. See how loaded it is with berries!

That is just beautiful. Have any of you used the berries to make jelly or anything? I wonder if they are different than the others. I have never used them but my sister made some jelly from the blue ones. She said it was quite good.

They are very sour/bitter? to eat by themselves.

Jeanette

This is nice. How much sun does it require?

How about elderberry wine?

I don't recommend "Black Beauty" for the deep south. Mine didn't take the heat very well. Other people have had the same results.

4 Paws, I do not know if the berries are edible but don't know why they wouldn't be since the green ones are. I don't mean the green berries 'cause you would not use them until they are ripe. I mean the green leafed plants.

I have never tried wine because I only drink wine now and then. However, my sister made wine out of the green leafed ones, I remember it was her first try at making wine. I will have to ask her how she liked it. I remember it fermenting in her bathtub (or shower) in the RV on their way south because it had not had a chance to finish before they left.

Hey Guy, I just discovered recently that you all in the "deep" south and also people in the higher zones can't necessarily grow everything well. I didn't know that. I guess I assumed that if they didn't freeze plants could grow anywhere.

I grow them for the birds, and unless I was absolutely certain that nothing toxic had been sprayed near them, I would not eat the berries myself. Otherwise I'm sure they would be fine.

We had elderberries growing wild in the woods around where I grew up in NY (upstate - Broome Co). They were edible, but I thought they were bitter and seedy. I made wine in 10th grade (experiment, ya' know). It was disgusting, but it did get consumed at a football game by someone. It came out thick. I suppose it didn't help the taste to put it in a couple of old Listerine bottles (all I could come up with from Mom; wasn't a big bottle using home, except canning jars). :-)

I'd grow it for the birds and purple leaves, but if it doesn't do well for you, escambiaguy, then it wouldn't for me, unless in afternoon shade.

I think it might be the combo of heat + humidity that is bad for these guys, not just the heat--I've seen them do fine around here and we can have some pretty hot temps in the summer, but there's almost no humidity.

It probably is the humidity. The native elderberry thrives here but the "black beauty" just doesn't like it.

They do fine here, as evidenced by the picture. And we have LOTS of 100* + days.

ecrane3~~

I tend to agree - we get many days in the 90's - 100's in summer...but just don't have the humidity. Mine has thrived and is filling out nicely in its second full growing season. I see birds on this plant well into winter eating the fruit, but had never thought to try them myself.....

Jamie, your plant is beautiful. I am surprised though, it is fuller than it is tall. At least what it appears in the picture. How tall is it? Gorgeous plant!! I am surprised when you say you don't have the humidity though. I used to live in Seattle and I would think you would be about the same. I would consider Seattle quite humid, but not that hot that you are saying.

4 Paws, I sure did laugh about your experience making wine with the berries. In listerine bottles yet!! So funny. But thinking about it being thick and you kids drinking it is totally disgusting.

Jnette~~

Thanks for the kind words - I am really happy with this plant! I bought it mislabeled as 'Black Lace', but am glad now to have the one I do..... The plant is 4ft tall by 5-6 ft wide, and grows to that size after hard pruning at the end of winter. It is such an easy plant, and the flowers are gorgeous against that dark foliage....I just love it!

As far as the weather comments - our summers are nothing like the humidity of the south, which is what I was refering to above. I can't even breath in that kind of humidity, and am thankful we don't have it here! We get many days in the 90's esp in late July, August and Sept, and often go into triple digits for several days at a time. But never with the stifiling humidity that many plants struggle against. Once in a while we will get a couple days of sort of muggy heat, but not enough to call it high humidity. After spending time in the deep south,and Florida, I really don't consider Seattle 'quite humid' compared to those places, but it's all relative I guess.... :-) LOL!

Hi Jamie,

So you give it some pretty hard pruning. Do you do this every year? Like in the fall, or in the spring? Guess it must be Spring. I just reread your message. You said "after winter". So, it must bloom on new growth. You prune the old growth huh?

That is very interesting. Thanks,

Jeanette

Black sambucus (sambuci ??) are pruned just like buddleia (butterfly bush : prune to 8" above the ground every March. I have seen accounts where older sambuci grow to 6' every season with this treatment.

jnette~~

Yep, greenjay nailed it - I wait until the end of winter, before new growth is going in earnest, and just cut the thing down! To about 6-10" from the ground, and I do it every year. The plant puts out tons of healthy new, dark black growth, blooms like crazy, and sets a ton of fruit for the birds....I treat it more like an herbaceous perennial than as a shrub. It keeps its size where I want it, and the plant has thrived! I have seen some huge specimens, and they just aren't as pleasing to my eye.

Have a great day!
Jam

Hi you guys,

Thanks for the info. Soferdig gave me some good information also. to repot my new one in a bigger pot and put it in the compost pile to get it's roots going good. Lots of good ideas.

I got a Keria at the same time. Do you all know anything about them? This is a vereagated one. Bet you are going to tell me to do the same thing? LOL.

I found a big plant of the green leafed one came up out in the trees. Do I cut it the same? It has huge big heads of berries. It must have been started by a bird.

Jeanette

What is it Jeanette? Not in the plant files.

You mean the Keria? It says it grows about 4 or 5 feet tall but mine in Seattle, zone 8, got about 9 feet and had long arching limbs. Kind of like the Budlea but not much sideshoots. It has small serated leaves, this one like I said is vareagated, the first one I had was solid pale green leaves, and small fluffy yellow blossoms that looks like the Correopsis flower. Sorry, my spelling leaves a lot to be desired. Used to win all of the spelling bees when a youngster. LOL

It is late and the plants are outside so I can't get the label to tell you.

Jeanette

Sofer, that Keria was called something else too but I can't remember what it was. Something I knew it by before I discovered the name was Keria.

Jeanette

Believe that Jnette is referring to Kerria japonica an arching shrub blooming yellow on old wood. Mine is fairly hardy below snow level but if left to grow tall will freeze on exposed old wood, hence very few flowers for me. Also pretty agressive with underground shoots to two feet from "mother" plant. "You only have to buy one" as you will have a constant supply from year three. I finally moved mine where I did not have to "care" so much for it. Mine is a single, there is a double flowering 'Pleniflora" and now, I guess, a varigated one, both of which might be "tamer" while giving up some hardiness. Ken

Sofer, search for Kerria- two r's.

Japanese Kerria is an EXCELLENT shrub, one of my favorites. It is a near-cousin of roses, and has tiny yellow blooms much like a rosa banksiae.

Here it starts blooming in late May, and continues to bloom sporadically until September. The habit is very similar to a LARGE forsythia -- I would not trim it except to remove crossing branches, just let it get the long arching branches with blooms on them. DGB has a beautiful specimen that I "visit" several times a year, in dappled shade.

Photo taken 9/30/2006, DBG:

In Garden watchdog, Garden Crossing has Black Beauty on sale for 9.09 now. Patti

Patti, that's a good price. Did they say how big it is? Mine is a 3 gallon and I paid $12. I am so anxious for next spring to see it, my Japanese Kerria and my Black Beauty growing. I did get the variagated JK.

I do hope mine is the double, but if not, I will probably look until I find one. LOL I really did love it.

Between the 2 of them I am going to really be looking forward to spring.

Jeanette

Jnette~~

Please don't forget to post pics of them to share here - I, for one, am looking forward to seeing them, too... :-) I don't think I have ever seen the variagated Kerria....sounds lovely!!

Have a Great Day!
Jamie

I sure will Patti. I was looking at the web page of the Big Dipper nursery in Black Diamond, Washington and they did have one that is kind of like my Kerria. I forgot to look to see if they had the Elderberry.

Jeanette

I ordered BlackBeauty from Garden Crossings a couple days ago. They mention that its possible to prune the into a small tree. Has anyone had any success with this?

carol

Carol, I don't know why you couldn't. I think you could do just about anything you want with it. At least from the green leafed ones I have seen I am sure you could.

Jeanette

I bought a Sweetspire to plant in the spot where my Black Beauty died. Well, I went out today to plant it and was surprised to see that the Black Beauty is still alive. I went ahead and potted it up so I could plant my Sweetspire. After I nurse it back to health I will try to find a spot with partial shade to put it in.

escambia - Sounds like you're having about as much fun with your elderberry as I am with my butterfly bush, LOL. I have a dwarf pink butterfly bush that I plan to just pot up, maybe try making it into a standard. If it dies, well, it couldn't look much worse. That sweetspite is my favorite shrub, as everyone here prob already knows, LOL. I would like to try Black Beauty. I have read that Sutherland Gold can also be treated as a cutback shrub. The Black Beauty would replace my chocolate eupatorium, I can't stand the white flowers.

I am hoping my sambucus varieties all do well in my new area here in zone 4b. The Madonna and black beauty did great last year but we only had 2 days below -25F. PGz I love white flowers in a chocolate bed of sambucus.