Black elderberry "Black Lace": description, cultivation and reproduction

Black elderberry "Black Lace" (translated from English - "black lace") is an incredibly beautiful, fast-growing shrub from the adox family. The shrub is distributed throughout the world, it can be found in both deciduous and coniferous plantations. It grows very quickly, creating large thickets. It is the most sought after species of its kind. His homeland is Asia Minor, the Caucasus and Europe.

Black elderberry "Black Lace" is an unpretentious shrub with a dome-shaped, spreading crown. The shrub can reach a height of 2.5 m and a width of 1.3 m. If desired, you can maintain the shape of a small tree or bush. It has thin, graceful leaves of a dark purple color, similar to maple. The inflorescences resemble umbrellas, they are 20 cm in diameter, pink or milky in color. Blossoming begins in the third year in May and lasts all summer.

Elderberry is undemanding to light. It will take root anywhere: both in the shade and in the bright sun. Planting is recommended in spring or autumn, before the onset of cold weather, so that the plant has time to adapt to winter. Choose a warm, calm day, preferably cloudy. To plant a young seedling in open ground, it is necessary to treat the place of its growth with an alkaline solution for 2 years. If you did not have time to do this, then liming the earth with dolomite flour.

Prepare a hole in the ground, about half a meter in diameter. Pour in a bucket of humus, 50 g of phosphorus and the same amount of potash fertilizer. Mix all this with earth and pour. Place the seedling in a wet hole so that the root collar remains on the surface after filling the earth, then gently straighten the branches from the root and cover with earth. Fill well with water and drive in a fixing stake near the plant, then tamp the soil a little.

Elderberry is unpretentious to soils, but grows best on clay and nitrogen, calcareous and semi-dry soils. The land must be loosened regularly. This is necessary for better air access to the roots and the prevention of weed growth. Mulching will be a good care. Remove the grown shoots at the base of the root, they quickly grow and thicken your plantings.

The aroma, persistent during flowering, scares away harmful insects and thereby disinfects not only the elderberry, but also the surrounding plantings. Watering should be as the soil dries up, but so that it does not dry out. Water once a week. A bucket of water is enough for one bush.

This shrub is formed as a multi-stem bush. For this, 10 to 20 branches of different ages are left on it. All berries grow on last year's shoots. In the spring, it is necessary to reduce the upper shoots by one bud, and the lateral ones by 2-3. The old branches are pruned to give the shrub a circular shape. In general, a shrub needs rejuvenating pruning only once every three years. Then the crown is cut off completely, almost at the root. You can leave about 10-15 cm.

In preparation for winter, it is necessary to cut the crown of the shrub by a third in September.Elderberry is frost-resistant, it tolerates cold well (winter hardiness zone - 4b), but it is still better to cover the shoots for the winter - this will protect the root system. However, it is worth noting that even if it freezes, it will quickly recover due to its rapid growth. If the fall is dry, water the plant well after pruning. In October, be sure to treat with a disinfectant. Loosen and mulch the soil constantly. If the plant grows on fertile land, then fertilization is not needed in the winter. But in the case of growing on poor soil, be sure to feed the culture with organic or mineral fertilizer.

Reproduction can be done in three ways.

This is the most effective and simplest method. To implement it, you need to find a strong side branch on the bush in the spring. Pre-dig a hole near the plant and bend the selected branch there. Sprinkle all this with a layer of earth, so that the layering is fixed. In summer, water the cuttings at the same level as the shrubbery. A root should have formed by autumn. After that, you can cut off the layers from the side branch and leave it until spring. With the onset of heat, it will need to be transplanted to a separate place.

Cuttings must be cut at the end of October or in the spring, before the sap flow begins. The length should be 20-25 cm, always with two or three buds. Soak them in water for a day, then place them in a container with damp earth and leave them for the winter in a room where the temperature ranges from 0 to +8 degrees. By spring, the cuttings should have a root and young shoots.

Seed propagation is a very complex process, in which a loss of varietal qualities of a shrub is possible. But if this method is chosen, then the collected seeds must be processed in a special stimulating solution and planted in disinfected soil. Create a greenhouse environment and wait for a seed to grow at least 50 cm in height. It will take about a year. You also need to be prepared for the fact that not all shoots can survive.

Despite the good survival rate of the plant, it can be affected by fungal and viral diseases, in addition, the shrub is susceptible to attack by pests. In a drought, an elderberry can be overcome by a spider mite, a tailed moth, an elder miner fly. In the spring, she is attacked by May beetle and aphids. The scoop damages the root system. For the destruction of pests, the drug "Biotlin" and other insecticides are used.

The plant is unstable to diseases such as powdery mildew, fusarium, anthracnose. From them, the leaves begin to curl up, the fruits deteriorate, the trunk dies off. For control and prevention, solutions with fungicidal compositions are used. The entire crown of the plant is sprayed with them, the trunk is smeared. In addition, the trunk of the shrub in October must be covered with a lime solution. Prevention should be done all summer, every one and a half months. For this, an infusion of copper sulfate or Bordeaux liquid is suitable.

Most often, the elderberry is planted next to residential buildings, not only for decoration, but also to repel insects. It is used to create hedges and layered gardens. Due to the rapid growth of the shrub, they can cover a certain area of ​​their site. With the help of elderberry, they plant landscapes in parks and alleys. Planting an elderberry as a tapeworm on the lawn will look great.

Use it in bright contrasting compositions, form backgrounds and high scenes with it. It will look interesting next to spiraea and juniper, barberry and birch.

In the next video you will find more information about Black Lace Elderberry.