Blue Elderberry (Southern Oregon Ecotype)

Sambucus cerulea

Origin: Southern Oregon

Improvement status: Wild

Seeds per packet: ~25

BOTANICAL SAMPLE - NOT GERMINATION TESTED

Life cycle: Perennial

As those of us who run EFN are much more familiar with the plants of the eastern woodlands, including the American black elderberry, we leave it to our West Coast friends — in this case the people who sourced these seeds for us, Ann & Noel of Homestead Culture in southern Oregon — to tell the tale:

"Blue elderberry is our west coast native elderberry shrub ranging from Southern Canada down to Northern Mexico. [These seeds] come from our local Southern Oregon blue elders.

Blue elder’s berries, leaves, bark and roots are all used medicinally in the same way as its American black elder and European black elder kin. Like black elder, blue elder is a fantastic herbal antiviral. As a food, in my humble opinion, blue elderberries are tastier than black elders and a bit sweeter. I find the blue elderberries more beautiful too, with their almost white bloom when the berries are ripe, that when rubbed off reveals a dark blue berry underneath [similar to blueberries and many wild grapes]. The bloom is surely a handy indicator of ripeness, even from a distance.

Speaking of beauty, the blue elder in full bloom is a show-stopper, offering abundant clusters of beautiful, elegant, delicate tree flowers in early summer after most other fruit trees have finished blooming. Instead, blue elder puts energy into growing leaves and branches first before extending its stunning display skyward.

The blue elders we collect seeds from live in the rain shadow from the more temperate coastal climate and are adapted to our hot dry summers. While these blue elders surely appreciate and thrive with lots of moisture, they are also quite drought hardy and can withstand quite hot and harsh conditions. That being said, they’ll get bigger and produce more flowers and berries with good garden soil and regular moisture.

Sure enough we see blue elders thriving on roadsides with no irrigation. In the mountains blue elders prefer to grow on roadsides, and sunny clear-cut forest re-growths with fair moisture, but can also be found on mountain crests where conditions are harsher and the soil is dry and lacking in organic matter. Wild blue elders produce just as abundantly as their domesticated counterparts and are adaptable to a wide range of conditions.

Blue elder is also deer resistant, likely due in part to containing hydrogen cyanide (HCN) in all parts of the plant (see health note below) as well as the musky scent the leaves produce. Deer will eat elder leaves and young growth when they are really hungry but likely won’t eat a lot unless they are starving. So young blue elders will need protection, but once established blue elders can fend for themselves against deer. They will also get tall enough to produce leaves and berries well above deer browse height if you don’t prune them lower.

Our family relies on blue elderberries for our medicine during cold season and throughout the year. We enjoy blue elder syrup but blue elderberries also make a fantastic jam. We prefer about 1:1 blue elderberries to apples cooked down to thicken and sweeten it up. We also use some whole flower clusters in our medicine cabinet in the form of tea and tinctures for cold season. Blue elder flowers also make exceptional wine and champagne.

We are excited to offer blue elderberry seeds so that you can start your own blue elderberry shrubs. As seedlings each plant will be its own distinct variety and while they will be fairly similar, you may find some who grow better in your garden or whose berries you like better."

HEALTH NOTE: Always cook any part of the elder shrub thoroughly for at least 30 minutes before using it for medicine or food, whether berries, bark, leaves or root. Raw elder plants can cause dizziness and vomiting.

GERMINATION: Starting blue elders from dry seed is more advanced than other tree seeds and requires patience because dry elderberry seed often requires at least a double cold-moist stratification period to germinate.

Here are a few options for stratifying your blue elder seeds:

In climates that experience cold winters, allow the seeds to go through two natural winters sowed in place in a well prepared and marked bed or nursery pot. Or else give the seeds a 30 day warm-moist treatment, followed by 180 days cold-moist stratification (in a fridge). Or give the seeds a 30 day warm-moist treatment, followed by 90 day cold-moist stratification period, followed by 30 day warm-moist period, and then a final 90 day cold-moist stratification period.

GROWING TIPS: After stratification, plant the seeds 1/4-1/2″ deep. Blue elder seeds like cool temperatures and will germinate in late winter or early spring, depending where you live, before many other tree seeds start germinating.

Seedlings are fairly precocious and can start flowering and fruiting in just 2-4 years from seed under ideal conditions: full sun to part shade, well-draining soil, but moist preferred to dry, and USDA Zones 4-8.

Blue elder is one of the first perennials to slowly start leafing out here in late winter in early January. In colder climates that may be delayed, but Elder is still very cold tolerant and early to start putting on new growth for the season.

Blue elders are easily prunable to any height you desire. Older elders will grow a thick trunk and produce a short tree form, but the plants also nearly always produce numerous suckers from the base of the trunk and even further from the plant. Some people coppice all the trunks to the ground every few years, or simply thin out older trunks on a regular basis to keep the tree shorter and easier to harvest. It's really up to you! If left unpruned blue elder can eventually form a thicket of canes and trunks extending from the original root crown.

The berries are ripe when they turn dark blue to a dusty pale blue, almost white color. It's generally easier to harvest the whole cluster of berries with one snip rather than harvest them one by one. And since the berries can be fiddly to remove from the stems, even when at home in your kitchen, the most common trick is to freeze the clusters, stems and all. The next day take them out of the freezer and hold over a bowl as you remove the berries from the stems. They come off much easier.