Wonderfully scented white spring flowers lead to bountiful purple-black berries in summer. Great for jelly and wine.
Two varieties are needed for pollination.
After you plant your bare root Elderberry plant, Elderflowers will appear in late spring. Their lacy faces are medicinal as well as beautiful & fragrant. You can harvest the flowers and dry them for tea or leave them be and at the end of summer they’ll be ripe deep purple berries.
Do not eat the berries fresh. The seeds can cause upset stomach and induce vomiting. But don’t let this scare you away from a wonderful plant medicine! The cyanogenic glycosides fully break down in the cooking process causing them to not be poisonous. Elderberry is a gentle remedy for the flu, coughs and colds. This remedy is deeply restoring and nourishing to your immunity.
Read more here for an Elderberry syrup recipe