Sambucus Nigra 'Black Lace'

Love it. My baby kindly sent from you is doing fine :). I lost 2 Acers this year too, I suspect because of cold winds, expensive ones too, very frustrating. Looks great Kathy.

Thankyou Dawn :-), glad yours is doing well it'll soon look like this, just been planting the gold leaf one that you sent me its doing great too :-), yes I gave up on the acers, very expensive, and these look just as nice :-)

They do look good against so many other plants too. Ours is in flower for the first time - must like rain and cold and........!

That looks beautiful.

Agree Kathy about the Acers. I've got Sambucus racemosa 'Sutherland Gold' too. Still young but it will grow fast, not as vigourous as the other but very nice. Will be taking cuttings in July to share :)

I had this in a pot and it began to deteriorate, so i put it in the ground, the improvement in 6 weeks was amazing...:>)

Thats brilliant Simbad do you have a baby going ??I have the green one but never seen the black one....

That is beautiful ,I'll be glad when mine grows up ,I only have one flower on mine this year .....

Thankyou everyone :-), yes everything seems to be loving the rain doesn't it Rose just to awful to go out and look at everything :-)
They do grow very fast Motinot :-)
Stripes I don't have any babies at the moment, you can grow from softwood cuttings but don't think they'd survive the postal service, Dawn and I swapped hardwood cuttings think it was September last year and now have some nice size plants, I'll make a note on my reminders to send you some cuttings then if you'd like?
This needs a drastic prune Amy, think you do it spring time? I just don't want to loose the flowers, I'll have to have a google :-)

Kathy, just going back to these being like Acers - are there any similar ones that could act as useful alternatives.

Ooh this is unusual-to me kathy :o) are the pink flowers part of it? love it! :o)

This is the only one I can think of Dawn because it has the same lacey foliage, although I've just discovered there are so many more elders than I knew existed so there could be :-)
Yes Leighleigh, do you know the elderberries that you often see in hedgerows with the creamy white flowers? well this is a dark leaved form,the leaves are really divided on this one, very pretty, I'll post a picture of the whole shrub in a couple of days when all the flowers are open :-)

Oh yes kathy i no what you mean. it is lovely :o) t.y

Hi Kathy, oh year, I think you sent me a link to the various Elders available - I've not kept the link, do you remember it.

Ours is not flowering yet, we did prune it severely this year, have bought another black variety, different leaf, and it must be all of 8ins high and it has a little pink flower on already, have also bought the yellow one, did you say it is slower growing? we find the wind snaps the branches off though, we are in a very windy area too....how hard did you prune yours simbad?

These are great

Must have another look at this site myself Dawn :-) here's the link
http://www.cgf.net/shop.aspx?id=14&hid=14&ltr=S
I have the other black variety too DD 'Black Beauty' another lovely one :-), I haven't pruned this one at all yet it really does need it now its gone mad this year over 7ft tall, think you can prune them really hard in the spring, I must have a google to check,just don't want to loose the flowers, this is in a really windy spot and also gets the odd branch snapped but think because its so big I don't notice, I do have the yellow kindly sent to me as a cutting by Dawn last year its grown brilliantly and just planted it out, Dawns is a fabulous shrub does look really large from her pictures but don't know how long it took to get to that size, I also have a variegated one which does say on the label slow growing we'll wait and see with that one :-)
Thanks Paul, do you have this?, think I remember seeing one in one of your pictures :-)

Yes I do the black lace - been great :)))) There's the other black beauty which has an RHS award but this doesn't - look pretty alike to me though, also Thundercloud I want to buy

Thanks so much for the link Kathy, I'll make sure I save it this time :-) I quite like your idea of having these Elders instead of Acer - makes much more since in my garden. As I said, lost 2 acers this year, think its the cold wind.
I've just put a picture on of the whole Golden Elder :-)

Not seen a variegated one, sounds nice, I think our new one is called Black Tower.....very different from Black Lace....going to look at Dawns golden elder, we have just planted this one....

does the plant smell like aniseed? wondered if it had anything to do with the drink sambuca lol i would definately grow some of that :o)

Well fancy that Paul I have 'Black Beauty' and it is lovely but would have thought this deserved the AGM more :-)
I'll have a look at your picture Dawn :-)
Have a look at the link I put on for Dawn DD loads on there :-)
I've been out for a sniff Leigh and b****r it doesn't smell of aniseed you had me excited there, you can make a pink elderflower champagne with it though remember someone posting a blog on here for it a while ago :-))

Haha! ooh yes please champers much classier lol-not me tho after a few :o) sounds lovely that!

Lol, I found it Leigh, thought if it had anything to do with alcohol I'd have saved it,lol,if you click on my favourites its on my favourite blogs, you just need to find someone with a pink elderfower to pinch a few flower heads ;-)

Ive just added that to my faves kathy it sounds great-really simple! now i just need some black lace lol-if i come across any in a garden i might be really cheeky and go and knock on their door lol-id offer to bring them a bottle round obviously :o) thanks v.much

Glad you found it, well who could refuse that offer, you can have some of mine :-))

its a nice business idea though id kinda expect the profits might not go very far lol :-)

Oooo I don't know I've got lots of flowers,lol :-)))))

ah well there you go-ill get the bottles in :-))