Elderberries – Day 01

updated 04/08/2026

April 2026

I received the elderberry cuttings on 30 March, from North Florida Elderberry, which as folks might guess, is located in northern Florida. The owners are branching from selling elderberry products into making and selling Elderberry wine. One of the owners worked with my son, who mentioned that I might offer advice in winemaking.

We connected and I provided advice on winemaking, essentially what I do on WineMakingTalk. Although I didn’t expect anything in return, the owners were kind enough to send me the cuttings. Which leads to this post.

Although I received the cuttings on 30 March, I knew I’d not have time over the Easter weekend to deal with them. So I kept the cuttings moist and held my breath that at least half would survive. If all survive, I don’t honestly have sufficient room to plant them all. My plan is to plant the coming weekend (11-12 April), so I’m hydrating them now.

North Florida Elderberry grows 5 cultivars of American Elderberry (Sambucus Canadensis), commonly known as black elderberry. There are a LOT of cultivars of American Elderberry, which have distinct differences from the European Elderberry (Sambucus Nigra). I may devote a future post to the differences between cultivars. It’s an extensive topic of its own.

I have roughly 6 cuttings of each of these cultivars:

Bob Gordon – Determinate. Large clusters of berries. Fruit hangs downward when ripe preventing bird deprivation. Grows to 6 to 7 feet tall.

Ranch – Determinate. Very tolerant of non fertile soils, Handles heat well. Usually grows to 5 to 6 feet tall.

Hamilton – Highly Indeterminate. AKA Southern Delight. Fruits over a long season, usually can harvest up to 9 months a year. Only in winter does it not bear fruit. Good yields. Resistance to Mites. Grows 7 to 8 feet tall.

Pocahontas – Indeterminate. Fruits over a 6 week period mid summer. Large clusters of berries, very good yields. Grows 6 to 8 feet tall.

Adams – Determinate. Large berries, good yields. Fruit hangs downward when ripe preventing bird deprivation. Grows to 5 to 6 feet tall.

Terms:

Determinate – Fruits over a short season, typically 2 to 3 weeks in mid summer.

Indeterminate – Fruits over long season, which varies by varietal.

Elderberry benefit from cross pollination, in producing better fruit. This is among the reasons I’m planting all five cultivars. Another reason is I want to see what the differences are. At some point I expect to make wine from each of the cultivars. It’s yet another experiment I will try.

Note: In grapes the correct term for different grapes is “varietal”. For elderberries, the term is “cultivar”. One site I read explained that all commercial elderberries are the result of cultivation, and the term is short for “cultivated varietal”. Technically speaking, all “grape varietals” are cultivars.