Cormaic's Garden - Plants

Garden Layout - Plants - Golden Elder

Sambucus racemosa plumosa aurea, to give it it's full title. For a plant with the common name of European Red Elder, this feisty little tree with deeply cut leaves looks wonderful in a japanese setting, and does well in the partial shade of this corner of the garden, growing in a 350mm stoneware pot.

It needs watering every day in high summer, getting through 3-4 litres per day in its pot, and the older leaves can scorch quite easily, leaving it looking a bit ragged and tatty, but I've found that the partial shade keeps this problem to a minimum.

Elder in early May, showing new growth

Elder in July. Notice how much it has grown.

The leaves edge towards red as the summer draws to a close, but I've never had berries on this specimen. Only the new new growth has the golden-green leaves that dance on the breeze as they catch the dappled afternoon sunlight, and so, after the frosts have seen off the foliage, the tree is pruned hard back to 150-200mm above ground level and covered with a mulch for winter protection.

Each year it throws up 1.5 - 2 metres of new growth from the pruned stump. Only this new growth has the lush foliage; any old growth soon becomes straggly and bare of leaves, hence the hard pruning. Elders have a reputation for attractting aphids and blackfly, but I've yet to see any on this specimen.