4 Fresh Black Bearing Elderberry Cuttings to Grow - Grow 4 Elderberry Tree Plants - Prized for Healthy Fruit

Excellent! Got 4 shoots, healthy looking. They all got green leaves on top and 3 got roots, but one eventfully died and never got roots. I kept them in a jar of water, changing the water often. I have 2 planted outside and are doing great. They are growing and getting new shoots at the bottom. I have one still in the water. Its being slow getting good enough roots to go outside. I put a plastic dome over the top of the two outside for about 2 weeks, watering them daily.

EDIT/UPDATE: One can read in the original post that I started off with these contrary to grower's instructions. There's clear and obvious reasons why one isn't overly inclined to 'wet-root/soak start' most anything that is not a tropical houseplant type - the 2nd photo makes it clear. I should have stuck to my original plan of starting them in soil - I'd have growing trees by now. 100 PERCENT OF EVERYTHING I'VE BOUGHT - 5 DIFFERENT ORDERS - COMPLETE FAILURE. I've not had a dozen or so failures in my 50+ years (I started as a kid in the family gardens) of growing stuff, certainly not 100% of everything. I will never buy a single thing from this place ever again, and no one else should either. I have live, thriving plants of all types around me, no idea what the issue is, but I'm not risking another penny here. If one were questioning this stuff on a gardening show, it wouldn't take long for someone to enquire about disease, fungus, parasites, etc. being spread through unwashed, dirty tools or hands. (I'm leaving my original review, that's only fair. But after 100% loss, I'm done buying cuttings online - period.) It took 4 days from the time I ordered until I potted them for rooting, that's a pretty fast turn-around window, one that really gives them the best possible chance of success. The data/instruction is a good one, as if put together by someone who was sick and tired of bad ones. These are fresh enough too, that my bet is they were cut-to-order. I'm not confident enough in our broken weather non-pattern here anymore, so pretty much everything I'm starting is indoors - under lights. It's all on me now, the grower/seller has done their parts quite well, and with starts this good, I'm expecting 4 nicely rooted bush starts in a few weeks. I'm glad the data sheet explicitly says 'do-not-fertilize' until, .. because I'm confident a lot of people will do so without a warning - it's usually a good idea. This isn't my 1st time with elderberry or working from cuttings either, so I've already learned that lesson; I did give each one a dab in my rooting hormone which, so far, hasn't harmed anything - and generally makes a productive difference. I wasn't so prepared for mixing a soil blend as advised, but I am lucky enough to have had sand and peat in my aquarium substrate supply stash; 50/50 sand/peat and that blend 1:1 with fresh clean potting soil, no reason for them to not take. I may stretch a stick in between each pair of pots to tie them off a little more securely, we'll see how well they stand on their own. I'll be back to update this review with a couple of progress reports and more picks; I anticipate great things to share!

I am very pleased so far! I ordered 4 bare root elderberry and I received an extra one too. All but one of them has leaves now and are slowly forming roots.

3/4 sprouted, but never rooted, then died. I am going to try one more time since this would be so much easier than starting from seed. I think I will start them in water, then transfer to soil and see if that works. I only see one review with pictures that actually shows roots. Update may 2025, received my second order and the stems were definitely not as fresh as the first batch, they smelled rotten and already drying up on the end. Tried in water for 2 weeks no sprouts. Wish I gave up after the first batch.

I recieved my cuttings today! They came in excellent condition, though, one of them had some mold growth on the top. I cured it by gently slicing off a thin layer of the top and then coated it in a fine layer of home harvested (from a local bee keeper) honey and cinnamon. Some of the leaves were looking a little off, but they were in a package. I'd feel off, too, if I didn't see the sun for a week. Currently they are sitting in glasses of mineral water on an eastern window ledge so that they get the first light of the day. I've set a reminder to update my rating when they begin to take root in around 8 weeks. 🙂

Pretty impressed with these cuttings. They are doing well sprouted in about 4 to 5 weeks after put them in water. Update 5/24- 1 of my cuttings is thriving, 1 is trying and the other 3 had green growth however they never rooted. I followed the instructions not sure what happened.

I ultimately was dissatisfied. I tried soaking them for 6 weeks and changed the water frequently, but they turned soggy and molded. I snipped off the soggy parts and used rooting hormone and put them in peat mos/ soil mix and kept them most. Another month or more and no roots, shoots, or anything has grown. I did get more than I asked for. I think I received 6 cuttings, several thick and a few thinner cuttings, but that just added to my disappointment that none took. Maybe I did something wrong as I admit this is my first time, but I thought I was diligent. It’s probably too late in the season now to try again unless I try to grow them in the shed with heat lamps. I just wish I had one that I could plant.

I'll be honest in that I did not realize what I was ordering and thought the plants would be rooted and good enough to go in the ground. Once I realized this was not the case I was concerned that I would need to store over winter, but I don't know if I'll be so lucky as they are not performing well. I followed the sellers instructions, soaked for a night, mixed peat moss and sand, domed with plastic, etc. I thought I was doing well at not making the cuttings too wet, but mold formed on some. So, I pulled all out and put back into water as I noticed a buyer indicate that worked for them. If I don't see anything in a week I'll dump and buy the actual plants in the spring when I can plant them. Note, I have had elderberries before, they mature quickly, are beautiful, and the fruit is delicious. My recommendation is to only purchase these if you know what you're buying. Oh, I should note that I did contact the seller to ask if I could still plant before winter (assuming I'd have more luck in rooting) and the response was ambiguous. And, they did send a couple of extra (so, good deal again, if you know what you're doing)... for me $20 lesson and a bit of time and frustration.