You know I have only one American type, and it doesn't do well, go figure? Who the heck knows?? I'll tell you all I can. It is between houses so it only receives about half a day, maybe slightly more of sun. In ground, we have a clay loam with a pH of about 6.5. It is very nice soil. Every spring I put bagged composted manure around it. I put a small amount of Dynamite control release fertilizer. And once a month use an organic. Usually Holly-Tone. I fertilize my grass with Milorganite, so it probably takes that up too. It is now approved for garden use, but I only use it on my grass. I grow over 20 different fruits and veggies. Not worried if some gets in the garden. I mulch with leaves or straw, but often I scatter it with the lawn mower. It needs more right now. I should clear more of the grass around the plants. If I left the 2nd year canes I could probably get a bigger yield. But I'm good with the 5 pounds or so I get. Going back to the subject of this thread, the thought came to me that maybe in Florida it's nematodes, as the state is notorious for having them. The kind you don't want. Maybe that was covered already? I heard tomatoes are hard to grow there because of the nematodes, and maybe elderberries are susceptible to them? I don't know? Some plants are not. I cannot grow blueberries in my soil. The west side of the state is all sand and that is where the pH is low and they grow them. I'm on the east side. I do grow blueberries but in containers, and raised beds filled with pine bark and peat. I use sulfuric acid to lower pH of tap water, but usually use rainwater (pH of 4.7) for my blueberries. I have 10 plants. Most of the other elderberries I grow are ornamental. I grow a variegated euro, Black Lace, and Black Beauty. All do very well here in ground.

Hi. I have ederberry borers in my red elderberries for the past three years. Winter 2016 I pruned them so there was only one foot left. That helped to control the borers. I had boreers in only one shrub the following summer. I am going to replace the red elderberries with black ones this spring. Is there another way to control the borers without pruning to the ground? Thank you

Yes, the lemony lace one I have, in its second summer, just hasn’t grown to my liking. It has an odd shape, and it acted almost perennial like, where it seemed to die back all the way to the ground last fall. Then in the spring all the new shoots grew from the ground rather than the previous growth. Now, maybe this was because it was it’s first year at my house, but it was a few years old already when I purchased it. So, overall I’m just going to have to observe this fall through next spring and see if the same thing happens again. It also hasn’t flowered for me yet, so obviously no berries. I couldn’t find the native red elderberry when I decided to try the Lemony Lace, but I found it locally now and wish I would have waited. The berry clusters on the wild red elderberry are just so beautiful in the fall and winter. I’m sending a few pics of my bush as well. I did cut back one big branch from it last week because it was over twice as long as all the others and looked ridiculous.

If your source for the John and Adams plants is Fast Growing Trees, I’ve noticed people here generally don’t rate the company. @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK, it is FGT :-) https://www.fast-growing-trees.com/products/john-adams-elderberry-shrub-pair I've ordered from them twice this year (both times were for trees), and both times everything was great; fast delivery, packed well so everything looked good on delivery, and they're still doing well. I haven't had a Winter with them yet, of course, but I bought a 1 year warranty for everything so if it dies then it's not a tragedy. I bought (4) Major Wheelers from another nursery and two of them have already died. Those are my only experiences with ordering plants online, so I have no complaints with FGT so far. FWIW, the elder I have growing spreads by suckering. Yours might do so too, and save you some money. @carolb_w_fl_coastal_9b, that would be pretty awesome :-) I read that you can root cuttings in water, so I figured that I would trim off ten 4" cuttings next year and root them in water, then by 2025 I'd have 11 good shrubs :-) Unless you all think I could take cuttings from that 8' long limb this year? I read that it's best to not prune it until it's 2 or 3 years old, but this was a transplant that I'd been mowing over for God-only-knows how long. And since the second limb is only about 3-4' tall, the 8' monster could stand to be trimmed down a tad. Or would it be better to wait for suckers instead of taking cuttings at all?