"Zipadee Doodar" wrote in message . uk...
Does anyone know where I can purchase a couple of elder shrubs, Sambucus
Nigra, in the Liverpool area? Or even where I can legitimately dig up a
couple of self seeded plants in the local wild? It does not seem to be a
stock item in any of the bigger nurseries.

They come well from both seed and cuttings, in my experience: I even
got a good one by accident when I picked up a concrete block I'd
apparently dropped on an odd bit of stem a few months earlier. Of
course it's illegal, but I can't see anybody minding if you haul out a
couple of seedlings in a country lane or a bit of waste ground -- if
you can find any: it's surprising how few tree seedlings one can
actually spot when one actually wants one. Winter dormancy makes it
harder, and that's when you should really do it.

A specialist native-plants nursery will sell them, though: try
Buckingham Nurseries, who are efficient and charge modestly. There are
a couple of attractive variant forms around, too.

If you're down in Berks when the berries are out, somewhere outside
Reading is the Courage Brewery Shire Horse Centre, at the back of
which are (or used to be) some very fine ones with extra-big berries:
you might get rather special trees by grabbing a few seeds there. I
think it's either an unusual variety, or a North American species.

If I'm reading your mind right, once your trees are established feed
and mulch them for a good crop.

Mike.