"Dave Hill"
On 13 Sep, 19:51, beccabunga

Why bother? They grow wild all over the countryside
and are so easy to
pick. They are also a tiresome and aggressive shrub
in a small garden,
needing annual cutback to keep them under control,
which reduces flower
and fruit.

If you really must, they are also one of the easiest
to propagate. Just
stick a whole row of small cuttings into the ground
and turn your back.

--
beccabunga

They grow easily from cuttings and if you have access
to a realy good
cropper then it could be worth doing.
Commercially there are now several selections grown
for their fruit.
Remember they take up a lot of room if you are going
to get a big
enough crop .
Cuttings taken in the autumn 6" - 12" taken end of
Sept to early Nov
should root well by next year
David Hill

I had another look at the 'bush' this morning - it must
be an Elder tree, with a spread of about 20'. You
mention several selections, so I'll wait till some of
the local nurseries get in their Spring stock and may
have something more compact.

"Martin Brown" wrote

Only if you hack them down regularly. I have one on
my field boundary.
It is more multistemmed shrub than a tree and about
4m tall 3m spread
only half over my land. The cows prune the field side
for me. I have
planted the Black Lace S. nigra cultivar to keep it
company. That is
much slower growing and quite ornamental too.

I would still suggest scrumping elderberries from the
hedgerow rather
than using your own growing space. Blueberries are
much more rewarding.

At least I now know what they look like, the bush is
still in berries, don't know why the birds haven't
eaten them. I'll have a wander down the lanes and
identify a few scrumpable sites.

I've planted part of the allotment with gooseberries,
blackcurrants and 4 varieties of raspberry. One variety
didn't survive 'Glen Clova' so I was thinking of
replacing the row of a dozen dead canes, with
elderberry. The dead row is on the South side, so an
elderberry bush will produce too much shade for the
other fruit. Twixt now and Spring, I'll try and find a
spot on the North side, for say 6 e/b plants. On the
other hand, scrumping may prove more fruitful (ouch).
BTW Ronc, the bottles of hooch were plastic.

Bertie