Adams Elderberry Bush

Make a great landscape choice with showy, hard-working Adams Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis 'Adams') flowering and fruiting shrubs. These native plants develop the revered medicinal berries we've all been buying at the health food store for lung and immune support!

Nothing could be easier to grow! This North American native cultivar develops quickly into a billowing, informal screen with wide, flat, creamy white flowers in spring! Butterflies adore these umbel inflorescence blooms, as they are easy to land on and gather nectar and pollen!

Some gather the flowers for rustic indoor arrangements or to prepare batter-fried fritters! The flowers have equally wonderful medicinal qualities and have been used to make tasty beverages! Plan to leave some of these honey-scented flowers so that later, they will become the highly sought-after clusters of dark purple berries!

Read how to prepare your harvest into antioxidant-rich tonics without artificial colors or flavors in our Garden Blog! Pick the entire cluster of fruit when fully ripe. You'll strip the berries to remove them from the bright stems. Cook them down to bring out the sweet flavor. Adams Elderberry berries are wonderful for wine, cordials, and jelly. Homecraft to your heart's content, or leave them for wild birds to forage in the fall.

Elderberries are recognized by the USDA Database for Flavonoid Content of Selected Foods as a superfruit because of their high concentration of vitamin C. Pick when at the darkest color, when Elderberries are high in Vitamin C and are used in many dishes including jams, preserves, pies, and syrups. It is also famous for making juice blends and the wonderful Elderberry Wine. Try your hand at your own medicinal syrups and tinctures, carefully following published recipes from reputable sources. Even the flowers are medicinal edibles!

Although Adams is self-fruitful, you'll get bigger harvests if you partner with York Elderberry or with a native species grown nearby for pollination. Any of the native Sambucus canadensis shrubs we offer will help produce more of the large Adams berries you crave for hand-crafted concoctions.

Planting and Application:

It's so easy to turn any lot into an Edible Landscape with these charming, low-maintenance shrubs! Highly adaptable, any sunny setting will be perfect for these forgiving shrubs that add a touch of cultivated wilderness to your garden!

Adams will grow into a rounded mound 8-10 feet tall and wide if left "au natural". However, you can also keep them much smaller with annual pruning. You can even create a small tree form with some trimming!

When left in their full and fluffy form, you'll love the airy screening and backdrops Elderberry provides throughout your landscape! Mix and match your Adams with the slightly larger York for naturalized thickets, bird and wildlife-friendly shelterbelts, informal privacy hedges, and windbreaks. Create an informal alternating hedge with several varieties at the back of your garden border.

Add to a Rain Garden to help filter rainwater runoff from roofs and streets before it hits the storm sewer. Likewise, just as drought-tolerant and xeric once established, Elderberry thrives in the Rock Garden!

Elderberry is also a great shrub to use as a useful border planting and backdrop to your landscaping beds and victory gardens. To create a solid screen, plant 4-5 feet apart on center. You'll measure from the center of one to the center of the next. You'll be so pleased to see how fast they fill in.

• Fine-Textured Foliage
• White Blooms in Late Spring
• Vital For Pollinators & Bird-Friendly
• Glossy Purple Berries Make Tasty Jam or Wine
• Foliage Looks Great in Cut Flower Arrangements
• Train Into A Tree Form & Great in Containers
• Wonderful for Mass Planting, Hedges & Specimens

#ProPlantTips for Care:

In the wild, Elderberry naturalizes along streambeds, in moist woodland settings, in thickets, and along roadsides throughout the eastern part of North America. Keep Elderberries stress-free by planting in a full sun location for the most fruit and flowers, with a consistent schedule of water. It handles any type of well-drained soil, ranging from poor to average conditions.

The tiny feeder roots receive lifelong support with the symbiotic Nature Hills Root Booster placed in the planting hole. Add a three-inch layer of mulch over the root zone, pulling it back away from directly touching the stems.

Elderberry flower on last year's wood, forming canes in a way similar to Brambles. So it is best to prune after flowering, but you will lose out. For that reason, it is recommended that you use renewal pruning when dormant, removing 3-year-old canes back to the ground. Cut back all 2-year canes by half and remove all weak and dead canes.

• Grows in Full Sun
• Highly Adaptable to Any Well-Drained Soil Type
• Thrives In Moist to Dry Conditions Once Established
• Flowers On Old Wood - Prune After Flowering
• Cold & Heat-Hardy, Low-Maintenance & Fast-Growing

Beauty and bounty! Hardy, compact, and adaptable, with lovely flowers and delicious fruit, the Adams Elderberry is a fantastic Sambucus variety and a perfect plant for your landscape! Order Adams Elderberry Bushes today from NatureHills.com!