Elder - An Underrated Shrub . . .
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- Опубликовано: 29 окт 2022
- In this video we look at the Elder - often classed as a "weed" species and its benefits for wildlife.
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Хобби
I found an elder while dismantling an old rotten shed and put it in front of my living room window, didn’t want a curse to fall on me from the witches ha😂 it is lovely, love the flowers and the berries and it is such an interesting shape in the winter. Btw love your videos Joel, thanks for sharing all of your knowledge and bless you for reminding us of how things should be cared for in nature. Seems our world stopped venerating the natural world a long time ago, we need people like you to re-educate us……Debbie
Thank you for being an informational ambassador for all of the underrated species!
Thank you Keith. You’re very welcome 😁👍 I do love a good underdog! 😉👍
A full grown elder is a most impressive sight,when in flower.
Agreed Keith, absolutely and in autumn adorned with so much food for the birds :) Hope you've had a good weekend, best wishes - Joel
I have a variety called 'Milk Chocolate' which I acquired from Cotswold Garden Flowers, Ed Brown there has the national Sambucus collection. Milk chocolate is amazing, flowers all season up to October, flowers are huge, berry clumps enormous too. I have 5 varieties in the garden including the native type, but 'Milk Chocolate' is phenomenal.
Wow John. This variety sounds amazing! 😁👍
I have just planted 3 for a mixed hedge! long live the elder!
Brilliant, you'll certainly see the rewards very soon! Thanks for being a champion for nature :) Best wishes, Joel
Underrated and overlooked, thanks Joel.
It breaks my heart too Joel to see our hedgerows mismanaged and robbed of their late summer and autumn bounty. Timing is everything. Like you say, elder is very much one of natures superstars and an important pioneer species and a tenacious survivor. A great watch and listen as always Joel. Thank you. Paul 👍😊
Thanks very much Paul. Yes, Elder is so underrated as a provider of food for wildlife. Hope you’re well. Cheers. Joel.
I have a couple one is very old now and is full of rot holes but continues to flower and fruit. It too has ivy scrambling through it and this year a pair of blackbirds successfully built a nest in it and raised a brood.
Hey Tracey - just taking a few moments out to attempt to catch up with everyone. Great to hear about the blackbirds benefitting too, such an important tree all round. Hope you and yours are keeping well, best wishes - Joel
Thanks for the tour! Great !
Thank you! Appreciated :)
we've got a native red elderberry in our little PNW yard, the satisfaction of watching the berries slowly disappear as they're eaten by local wildlife is just unreal.
Love this description Erika :) Best wishes - Joel
Wonderful video! ❤️ I live in Victoria, Australia and I have many growing in my suburban garden. They grow all over the south-eastern parts of Australia. Elders are flowering here right now. Such beautiful trees and an important medicinal plant for humans too.
How wonderful! Nice to know they are providing food down under! 😊👍 Thank you for sharing.
I have 2 elder trees in my hedgerow. My mum used some berries to add to gin. The birds eat the rest. These trees have many stories associated with witches, appropriate for Halloween 🎃
Thanks for this Elizabeth - you made me google this and I found out a lot of interesting stuff! I didn't know that Elder played a big part in the Harris Tweed industry "Blue and purple dyes can be made from the berries, yellow and green from the leaves and grey and black from the bark." Thank you for teaching me something today :) Hope you are keeping well, best wishes - Joel
Thanks Joel 👍 You've identified a huge shrub at the bottom of my garden (my late parents') and I love it 😀 I don't know if my parents planted it or it was already there when they purchased the property or it just appeard, but it's clearly at least 20 years old. Enjoyed seeing the birds feasting on the berries this autumn. I did top it with my telescopic chainsaw late last year and it already put out loads of new growth this year and is as big as before 🤗
Hey Carl :) Thank you, great to read this and yes they can be cut back quite a lot and recover well, so glad you did this rather than remove it completely and you have clearly been rewarded with the feathered visitors making the most of it - hope you are keeping well, best wishes - Joel
I have about 6 on my small property, at least one on every side of my garden and I find them difficult to manage. Not only do they create problems with some neighbours but they are well surrounded inside the laurel hedges. I have made cordial and jelly but I prefer to leave the flowers and the fruit to the birds.
Good for you, Nadine. Hope you’re well and keep in touch 😊👍
Hey Joal, glad to have you back! I don't have the wild elders but have had 3 hybrids for a lot of years. about three years ago one of them just up and died on me. Not sure why, it was right next to another one. When mine berry, it's the House and Gold Finches, and the Black-headed Grosbeaks that like the berries, and the Chickadees and House Sparrows too. I live in a single-story house and the one bush drapes its branches over the roof. I don't mind at all, makes a bit of a tunnel. The older tall one has a single trunk, but the lace-leaf one has multi trunks and is about 8 to 10 feet tall now. This elder likes her Elderberrys (:
Hey Linda - so good to read this, there are a lot of creatures benefitting all year round by the sounds of it - well done you! Enjoyed reading this and imagining the birds that visit. Hope you are keeping well - best wishes, Joel
Love Elders! We planted two in our garden here in the far N of Scotland a couple of years ago. Don't see that many around here, but there are some. One of ours has grown one long branch straight up this year! Can't wait till they start producing flowers and berries. Do you know how long that will be? Thanks for this video celebrating them!😊
Hi Debbie. They will usually flower off the previous year’s growth, so may flower next year fingers crossed 😊👍 I just think they are such an underrated plant 😁👍
Great for humans too. One of the best medicines for us. I planted about 13 of them and have a few more to plant. i also realized i have a few on my property. If im not careful, the birds would eat everything. I want some too🙂 A must have.
My father’s property has a boundary hedge of Elder. My step-mother who seems to hate all trees and taller shrubs, is continually giving me a hard time, to cutback, prune to nothing or uproot such growth. For my part, I’m continually disappointing her, by not cutting-back, pruning to nothing or uprooting said growth. Plus many of the berries are great in pies.
Elder are not good to be eaten on mass, as a lot will upset the human digestive system. However, if you’ve been out picking berries and haven’t got enough for your pie are tartlets. You can make up the bulk with a handful or two of Elderberries.
Just ensure that when you go foraging, to leave the majority for the wildlife and plant’s own wellbeing. If a particular plant or tree has little ripe fruit, leave it for mature and move on to another. Humans have shops, whereas wildlife depend on such seasonal harvests. Not just to live but to bring on there young or fatten up for migration or fatten up after a migration. It great to pick wild but do so with thought for the many others; most of which won’t be humans.
It is also used medicinally. I make a syrup out of dried berries. Great to take daily or when you feel a cold/flu coming on.
Great advice Cathy - I have heard this but haven't tried the syrup, it's something I must do though :) Best wishes, Joel
Wouldn't be without elderberry syrup! Great stuff!
@6:59 Crikey, I've never seen elder get that big. I assumed that it got no taller than about 12 feet or so, since that's all I've ever seen it at.
It's a great tree isn't it? It's amazing what they can do when humans aren't "containing" them and keeping them in check, they don't have any one to do this out in the wilder parts and this is a perfect example :) Best wishes - Joel
Love the look of those berries. Multiple weeks back I came across a few of those trees in a hedge row and the berries were all eaten. I considered this tree for in the front garden to, but they are so heavy when full with berries. I don't know how well the tree will look after a good autumn storm here. Like I said on one of your Instagram posts, it is so hard in choosing the right tree for my front garden. It's 23 square metre and north west facing. I wish making the right choice for a (native) berry/fruit-bearing tree was easier to do.
Hi Titia :) Elder would be good, they can be easily coppiced/cut back without any complaints and of course provide a good source of blossom and nectar as well as fruits. Have you thought about a Rowan (Mountain Ash - Sorbus aucuparia) - they usually grow to around 8-12 metres but can be coppiced too and grow at about 30cm a year.... hope this helps :) Best wishes, as always - Joel
Great video Joel!
Those berries are plentiful enough to share with us humans too!
Along with cordial, jams, and such, those berries are well known for their medicinal value!
They'll need to be cooked before eaten, that's very important.
I make Elderberry Syrup from the berries, mixed with honey.
It's a fantastic syrup to consume every day during cold & flu season, and it's ok for children too.
It's really great for boosting the immune system.
I believe the leaves also have medicinal value too.
I've always had 2 trees, but a friend was asking if there needs to be 2 trees to pollinate the flowers, or will one tree be enough?
I thought I would ask the expert - YOU!
And if we had hedgerows here in Texas I would definitely spread the word to not cut them back!!
It's good you're getting the word out!
Great video!!
Didn’t realise Elder was widely regarded as a weed, it really should be known as a easy to grow small tree/shrub 🐝
Not quite sure how it got that reputation, but no doubt due to it's "success" and how much it can proliferate. It's so vital to so many insects and birds though and easily controlled in smaller gardens if needed :) Hope you're doing well Mark, best wishes - Joel
I think they are referring to the common green elder. It used to be planted in car parks and all common ground where it spread, spread and spread some more. My neighbour has one and I'm forever digging out its seedlings.
I wondered what the 🌳 were with the berries. That’s 👍🏻 to know. Thanks again Josh for your interesting information. I’ve a rowanberry but the starlings didn’t eat much. The 🌲 is in my front garden 🪴 outside my front 🪟. 😊
That’s great re the front tree. I’m sure the birds will eat the berries next year 😉👍 Oh and PS, it’s Joel, not Josh! 😆😉👍
@@WildYourGardenWithJoelAshton I know, a typo mistake. 😊
Brilliant Joel thanks for sharing 🐸💚🐸
Hello UK Amphibians! Hope you're all well.
@@SisterDogmata hi good to hear from you we are fine how are you ? Hope your ok too 🐸💚🐸
@@UkAmphibians I'm ok thank you. Looking forward to spring!
@@SisterDogmata yes we are too our favourite time of the year 🐸💚🐸
My pleasure 😊👍
Hey Joel! Hope you've settled in back in dear old blighty after such an amazing time. I always thought Elder was linked to ground Elder so would never have entertained it but I've just looked it up and there's no link at all. One for the list! Best wishes, looking forward to all the future videos.
It’s called ground elder because the leave look similar. Don’t think they are related! Ground elder flowers are good for pollinators, though the plant is a nightmare for gardeners!
@@robertsmithshair4199 Thanks! Yep it sure is a nightmare to get rid of and spreads like mad. Had it in a previous garden and never managed to get rid of it. It's a shame because like you say the bees loved the flowers.
Thank you. Yes back in the swing of things here in the UK now. Certainly missing the weather in Panama! 😆 Hope you’re well 😊👍
You are still nearly as colored as the berries. 😉 Looking good. Did you have a good time in Panama?
Elderflowers are nice to eat. Leave the stem on, move it through some oatporridge, hot oil or butter and fry. Of course disturbing the peace by doing this. Liquor is also made from these berries, and lovely confitures. In Netherlands it is mostly looked upon as unwanted because of its invasiveness.
Haha! Panama was brilliant from day 1, lots of videos to edit and upload of course but hoping now the nights are drawing in that I'll have a little more time, just working away from home again so difficult to take my desk-top computer with me! ;) Great re the Elder uses, I really must try to do more with the one in my own garden. I think that's the reason that it's been often regarded as a "weed" in the past here too, it's success and ability to pop-up in the most awkward of places :) Hope you are keeping well, best wishes as always - Joel
I've got the black lace variety in my garden. Can you still use the flowers and berries from this
😱😱😱 I have one of these in my garden and I was leaving the flowers till they died off and cutting off the flower heads thinking they would reflower I feel terrible now 🙁🙁 thank goodness my neighbour has an old one growing in their garden 😂 no more flower head cutting from now on 😊 thank you 😊
I wouldn't worry Maureen, at least you didn't cut the whole tree down, so many are and yet they're so vital for so many creatures. Yours will recover and continue to provide harvest no doubt at all :) Best wishes, as always - Joel
You can use the fresh flowers to make delicious cordial
We have one of these in our garden Joel, and I'm sad to say that the value to the local wildlife is severely reduced due a local pest species that removes most of the flowers before they have a chance to turn into berries. My wife always uses the blossoms to make a cordial drink. Do you know any techniques to stop one animal from hoarding the output of this particular tree or shrub?
do insects get drunk on overripe fruits that are fermenting in to alcohol
Can you eat the berries?
Need lots of sugar
Yes you can but don’t overdo it as they can act as a laxative!
The berries are edible but must be cooked and not eaten raw. They are great for jams, wine, cordial, and can be used with other berries for pies, etc. The flowers can be used similarly, too. I tincture mine and have a couple of drops a day to help boost my immune system.
@@gryphc3860 What happens if you eat them raw?
@@CookingLessonsforDad well, I have eaten them raw, but see my previous comment! You could try steeping them in vodka for a couple of weeks, strain and use as winter tonic - a good anti-viral and tasty aperitivo
Is Elder not a tree?