The last week of January I took some cuttings of elderberry bushes that I had found a couple years back. While the bushes were in their most dormant stage I cut 10-12" pieces, all about the diameter of pinky fingers. Even in the heart of winter it's still possible to tell which cuttings are living and which are not, so it was easy to recognize the keepers.
I kept the cuttings in a few inches of water (changed about once a week) and sitting in a sunny window. First leaves appeared, and eventually roots. Once the roots began to grow they took off pretty fast. Tonight, nine weeks later, they were ready to plant. Some even had little blooms appearing.
Though I should have berries later this summer from these cuttings, I'm still planning on a foraging trip for what I need canned this winter. They are the perfect addition to oatmeal (thank you, Steve, for the suggestion one day), but I won't have oatmeal come December. Certainly elderberry wine or some frozen elderflower lemonade would ease my oatmeal woes. But that's months away. Now...I wait.
Image credit: Cale Ruiz
I kept the cuttings in a few inches of water (changed about once a week) and sitting in a sunny window. First leaves appeared, and eventually roots. Once the roots began to grow they took off pretty fast. Tonight, nine weeks later, they were ready to plant. Some even had little blooms appearing.
Though I should have berries later this summer from these cuttings, I'm still planning on a foraging trip for what I need canned this winter. They are the perfect addition to oatmeal (thank you, Steve, for the suggestion one day), but I won't have oatmeal come December. Certainly elderberry wine or some frozen elderflower lemonade would ease my oatmeal woes. But that's months away. Now...I wait.
Image credit: Cale Ruiz