I just purchased 6 Elder Berry bush plants. Thier about a foot high.

Do I plant them now and hope they make it through the winter?

How fast do they grow to a decent height and produce berries?

A little help here.

I'm not sure when to plant. We have no elderberries up where I live. However, down the Salmon River, they're plentiful. We go down and pick ~10 gallons every year for wine. Wife dumped the seeds, etc., from the primary fermenter into edge of back yard several years ago. Dumped them in the fall. Next summer, we had 6 inches of new bush started. Took only 3 years, we had berries. Bush got about 12 feet tall in four years. In three years, berry crop was major. Now, 11 years later, produces 40 gallons of berries. This time of year, migrating robins gorge themselves every day. Still a good crop for us to harvest. Good luck!

Jack

Plant your bushes now. Keep them well watered until they go dormant. You will have flowers and fruit next year.

Keith

So plant them with some mulch around them for winter and stopping the weeds?

Yes. It will produce roots during the Fall and Winter.

Keith

When I dug elderberry cuttings i had started the year before they already had 15" of new root growth by the 2nd week of January. So yup, plant them now for sure.

BTW, you almost can't kill an elderberry. They're very hardy.

What varieties did you buy?

These are the black berry from Gurney's.

Black elderberries (Sambucus nigra) could be either European or North American. The North American being "Sambucus nigra canadensis". Within both sub-species are many different named varieties. Especially with the North American ones they are wild selections that were superior to others and got named. ie: "Bob Gordon"....named after a farmer named Bob Gordon...etc etc.

I just trans-planted them in an area of the garden. The ground is a sandy loam. Lots of chicken fertilizer from 2 years ago, worked in.

Plant now. They are better off in the ground and will try to grow roots until the ground freezes. Mulch keeps the ground cooler and slows evaporation of water.