This short article was written by Solomon Gamboa; Author of Native Meadowscaping , Native Plant Agriculture , and A Native Plant Propagation Guide & Nursery Model all available at this link.
Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis) is a thicket species that thrives in permanently wet, seasonally wet, and average soil moisture conditions. The small fruits are medicinal and edible to humans when properly prepared. They’re also highly favored by a wide variety of native bird species. This thicket species is very vigorously growing, capable of growing 6 feet in one year after it’s established. They top out at 7 to 12 feet tall depending on the available moisture and surrounding competition. The blooms are born in early summer after Flowering Dogwood and the Shrub Dogwood species are finished blooming. Elderberry is primarily pollinated by short-tongued insects and small native solitary bees. In seasonally saturated or frequently saturated soils they grow well with Silky Dogwood, Gray Dogwood, Buttonbush, Ninebark, and shrub willow species. Wild growing Elderberry is a good indicator of at least moderately high soil moisture as it does not grow in drier soils. In landscape conditions, just with providing it with 2 inches of water during the summer droughts, you can get elderberry to grow in a wider range of conditions. This thicket species is adapted to partial shade as well as full sun. On river floodplains it is one of the only thicket species that can withstand the flooding waters carrying tree logs that destroy understory trees and shrubs. It survives by creating hollow branches that are easily regenerated after collision with flood-thrown logs.
Elderberries are used as an anti-viral treatment of illnesses. Science has proven that the medicinal compounds found in elderberries lessens the recovery time and severity of the flu virus and other viruses. The practice of using Elderberries as medicine originated with indigenous people within the native ranges of the Elderberry species. Today, elderberries have managed to become a small part of U.S. culinary practice and medicinal practice. You can find medicinal elderberry syrup in many health food stores. Cooking the berries to make jellies, syrup, or wine are the most common consumption routes of elderberries and cultivars have already been selected for larger berry sizes and/or flavors. These first cultivar selections of elderberry represent small gains over wild elderberries in size, but with more attention and time devoted to the cultivation of elderberries, they likely will increase more in yield and/or size per berry overtime. Elderberry commercial production has grown the quickest in Missouri where it is now the most profitable berry grown in the state.
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Above the native Elderberry Borer (Desmocerus palliatus) is pictured. Borers are a type of beetle that eats the pith, sapwood, and/or cambium of trees and shrubs. Native Borers are co-evolved with the native plants and don’t kill their host plants unlike the non-native Emerald Ash Borer that kills Ash trees. Technically the Elderberry Borer is a long horned beetle despite its common name. This beetles’ larvae develops by consuming the pith inside of the elderberry branches and roots.
Propagation (Cloning and Growing from Seed)
When exceptionally sized or yielding elderberry seedlings are found, cloning them is easy due to the rhizome production. Cutting into the elderberry thicket with a spade in the fall will expose fleshy whiteish rhizomes that can but cut into 4-5 inch pieces that will each become clones of the parent plant genetically. Taking these rhizomes and nursery propagating them into 25 gallon pots will make the rhizomes multiply after a full-growing season creating more clones of your selected Elderberry. They can also root through stem cuttings, and if you're not seeking clones; collect the seed and overwinter them in silty soil pot outside for the winter. Come early march; wash the silty soil away through a fine mesh strainer leaving the seeds behind. Sow the seeds in early march or your region's equivalent to early spring/late winter. The seeds will germinate by mid spring and can grow as large as 4 feet tall during their first season if provided with enough soil medium, fertilizer, water, and sunlight.
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