I've got one and I cut it back hard at the end of March and NOW starting to show blossom heads. I've chopped loads off it in the 3 years and yes it's like a Buddleigh, doubt I could hurt it if I tried. Love the flowers. Seems to self set easy. Already passed 2 on.
Mine is 6ft tall but no flowers. It's about 3 years old but this is the first year it has grown so much. Is it too late for flowers now? And as shazbod asks, how do you take cuttings?
I was told when I bought mine to cut it down to about a foot or eighteen inches each spring. Had it a couple of years and it is flowering well this year. I'll have to move other plants out of the way I would also like to know about cuttings
So would I! Anybody got any advice about that? My trusty 'Reader's Digest Encyclopaedea of Garden Plants & Flowers' was published before Sambucus Black Lace must have been bred, as it's not included in there! It's an excellent book for telling how to take cuttings from every plant there is, otherwise!
I have my own problem with mine - we bought it earlier this year and planted it in a bare corner of the garden, with other, smaller, different-coloured shrubs well-spaced out in front of it. We wanted it to be a nice, dramatic, black background for the other shrubs. So far, though, it has only continued to grow along its two (only) stems, getting very leggy and spindly and now they are bending right over like willow! My wife wants to stake them up, but I suspect I should prune them a little, to (hopefully) encourage it to bush. We DON'T want to cut back to the ground, as we would like it to grow into a large shrub in the corner eventually. The new leaves are green, but some say they will turn darker later? It only gets direct sun for a few hours in the early morning, so I'm hoping it gets enough sun to get the leaves black? Trouble is - pruning it now is like taking off most of this year's new growth... any advice?
As Nutcutlet says, cut it hard back to almost ground level at the end of the winter - it will throw up lots more growth. Feed, mulch and water. To make a big bush I'd coppice it hard every two or three years.
Old gardening saying - Growth follows the knife.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
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Looks like it Bev, may even be Black Lace
In the sticks near Peterborough
I've got one and I cut it back hard at the end of March and NOW starting to show blossom heads. I've chopped loads off it in the 3 years and yes it's like a Buddleigh, doubt I could hurt it if I tried. Love the flowers. Seems to self set easy. Already passed 2 on.
Thank you Nut
I would like to take cuttings from mine........what is the best way to do this? Any advice appreciated
Mine is 6ft tall but no flowers. It's about 3 years old but this is the first year it has grown so much. Is it too late for flowers now? And as shazbod asks, how do you take cuttings?
I was told when I bought mine to cut it down to about a foot or eighteen inches each spring. Had it a couple of years and it is flowering well this year. I'll have to move other plants out of the way
I would also like to know about cuttings
So would I! Anybody got any advice about that? My trusty 'Reader's Digest Encyclopaedea of Garden Plants & Flowers' was published before Sambucus Black Lace must have been bred, as it's not included in there! It's an excellent book for telling how to take cuttings from every plant there is, otherwise!
I have my own problem with mine - we bought it earlier this year and planted it in a bare corner of the garden, with other, smaller, different-coloured shrubs well-spaced out in front of it. We wanted it to be a nice, dramatic, black background for the other shrubs. So far, though, it has only continued to grow along its two (only) stems, getting very leggy and spindly and now they are bending right over like willow! My wife wants to stake them up, but I suspect I should prune them a little, to (hopefully) encourage it to bush. We DON'T want to cut back to the ground, as we would like it to grow into a large shrub in the corner eventually. The new leaves are green, but some say they will turn darker later? It only gets direct sun for a few hours in the early morning, so I'm hoping it gets enough sun to get the leaves black? Trouble is - pruning it now is like taking off most of this year's new growth... any advice?
It's just a variety of bog standard elder. Hardwood cuttings would be the way to go for propagation.
Sparko, cut it back hard at the end of winter, that's what makes it bush out. If you don't you'll just have an extension of what you've got.
You can snip the ends off now if they're swamping other things
In the sticks near Peterborough
As Nutcutlet says, cut it hard back to almost ground level at the end of the winter - it will throw up lots more growth. Feed, mulch and water. To make a big bush I'd coppice it hard every two or three years.
Old gardening saying - Growth follows the knife.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I've just bought one! Would it be ok to put in a large pot, then plant in garden next year?