Elderberries are super easy to grow, good for your health and great for wildlife. These adaptable native woody plants will colonize and spread unless shoots are removed periodically. White flower clusters in spring are followed by dark purple berries. Plants are self-fertile.
‘York’ offers the largest berries of any cultivated variety. Great source of vitamin C. Fruit makes wonderful pie, juice, jelly and wine. Vigorous and hardy plants produce showy white flowers in summer and colorful fall foliage. One of the easiest berries to grow, plants grow large—allow for 6 feet of width and a height of 8′.
‘Adams’ is known for its consistent yield and adaptability, making it another gardener’s favorite.
Excellent for the wildlife garden as well. The elderberry is a host plant for over 40 species of butterflies and moths, including the cecropia moth, North America’s largest moth. The elderberry’s dark purple berries are eaten by up to 45 species of birds, including eastern bluebirds, northern cardinals, and mockingbirds. The elderberry provides nesting materials for native bees, and the hollow stems of older elderberry plants provide overwintering sites for bees.