It looks to me from the reference below that the blue elderberry is closely related to the common elderberry, and that both are edible cooked. Red elderberries are said to be toxic. You can plant two seedlings of blue elderberry and get fruit, but not two cuttings from the same plant. A native wild elderberry may cross with one of the more desirable established cultivars of common elderberry which have been bred for superior fruit. Since it is common for elderberries to grow as shrubs or multi-trunked trees, you could plant one or two natives very close to one or two known cultivars chosen for their fruit quality, even pretending they are a single plant. Also look up the USDA's paper on Common Elderberry for cultural information. Here is a link that might be useful: Elderberry species

I my area Alberta's seem to always get dead spots on them eventually and why I have steered clear of them. Big Maples can look nice, but I wont risk getting one with those awful helicopter seeds...lol..I dont want 1000's of maples. I have an Elderberry and in bad winters they will die to the ground. BUT THEY GROW LIKE A WEED! Just like a Butterfly Bush. Mine every year gets over 6 foot tall no matter what. I wouldnt suggest it for your front of your home with how well structured you have everything. I am sure you will be dissapointed in it. I enjoy mine located in the back yard and gets a ton of sun and has the room to do whatever it wants. Might also constantly reach for the sun out front, would be my guess. I have a smaller variety of dark leaved ninebark that gets about 5 foot tall. Sorry I am not sure what type it is, but I know it is not a diablo which I believe gets bigger than mine. I have never had a mildew issue with it, but could be due to it gets alot of evening sun also. I think it could be a good choice for that spot along with the smaller variety of dark leaved weigela you have mentioned. My final comment would be to consider a laceleaf weeping Japanese Maple for that spot if you are looking for that color scheme. But looks like it could be a little tight for that spot and you might have to make that spot a litte wider from the house. BTW everything looks great!!

yes i have seen this often with elderberry. even with well establishes patches with multiple plants, some of the berries will be great and some just dont quite make it. they take quite a while to get fully established before they produce a lot of flowers and berries. often they grow in huge patches with huge plants, you may want to add a couple of others of a similar variety to get better berries. and be patient, at least in my experience these take a couple of years to really get into their groove.

When I was at Home Depot last year they had printed paper samples, (8 1/2 x 11") in most corian colors. You could snag a few of those in each color and lay them around -- sometimes a color you like in a 2" square looks very different when there's an acre of it in your kitchen. For me it was a toss-up between tumbleweed, burled beach, and clam shell, and after seeing a full sheet at a fabricator shop it was easier to choose. I have an L-shaped kitchen and you can see the "flow" of it coming to a corner if you look closely, but of course you can't feel that there's a seam. The Mediterranean will be less obvious since it just has "bits" and no flow. (I had Mont Blanc in a previous kitchen and the seams were completely invisible, I had to stick my head inside the corner susan and look up to find the seams!) Note that darker colors will show scratches more quickly, and a vivid color like elderberry might be harder to decorate around than a neutral would be. As for the integral sink, I had one and didn't care for it. The seamless edge was great, but it was a bright white that stained every time I got tomato-based food it -- spaghetti sauce, ketchup, salsa -- and had to be bleached. This time around I went for an undermount stainless sink.