I fear that the choice of plant puts you at a disadvantage from the off. Your shrub looks like Sambucus 'Black Lace' or similar cultivar. This is a vigorous shrub hailing from cool, moist, temperate climates which can potentially reach 8 feet with a large root ball. I am afraid that trying to grow it in a small pot (and it is small for an elder) on a roof top in NYC is going to be a huge challenge. You refer to 'only' 80 degree heat. That is incredibly hot for elder. Even the wild ones here droop in that kind of temperature and they have roots down in the moist ground. Basically your elder is being cooked. It will need a much bigger container, something like a half barrel, much cooler temperatures and copious watering to survive.

For some curious reason, I have had nothing but success with elderberries (all S. nigra) - my first plant was a bedraggled left-over at a year-end nursey sale about 8 years ago, and it got unceremoniously dumped into a pile of poor soil in a back corner (I was looking for a cheap way to screen that pile!). . . It survived the winter, with no help from me, and just sort of "sat there" for that first whole summer; the second season, it seemed to perk up and threw out some foliage, actually tripling in size. Today, it is HUGE, fully 12' tall (almost as wide), glorious in leaf (it's S. nigra 'Guincho Purple') and in flower - and I've never done anything for it! No extra fertilizer, no extra water, nada - this beauty did it all on it's own. . . Since that early surprise success, I've added other S. nigra ('Variegata' in partial shade, 'Black Lace' with more compact growth and wonderfully feathered leaves, 'Black Beauty' which is just amazingly dark, especially when the pink flowers explode) and all are doing well. . . I have recently learned a startling maintenance suggestion (and had it corroborated by several other sources): these elderberries benefit from severe pruning in late winter (one source even said all the way to the ground!) - my original 8-year-old specimen will be my guinea pig this year, and it may take care of the very woody stems that have developed over time. Incidentally, try starting off with the smallest (and cheapest!) speciman you can find - once settled in, S. nigra, at least, is a fast grower. . . this season I'm branching out to try S.racemosa 'Sutherland Gold' which completely seduced me when I saw it in a botanical garden last year. . . Good luck! Carl Here is a link that might be useful: Lazy S'S Farm

Hi and thanks for your response. The tag mentions zone 4. I shy away from anything 5 or higher, especially since often they don't bother to say whether they mean USDA zones or Canadian zones and if they are USDA then I need to look for a zone 4. I'm confused about this plant because there is a particular site that shows Thundercloud as USDA 3B and Black Lace as USDA 4A, - a site I'm not allowed to mention here, yet there are other sites that show Thundercloud as 6. Obviously you are growing Black Lace and it doesn't seem like it is dying to the ground each year. I was considering Black Lace, but the foliage seemed black as opposed to burgandy. Would you say your Black Lace has leaves darker than, say a Purple leaf Sandcherry? I actually have had a regular native elderberry for about 8 years. The birds must have dropped seeds, and recognizing what it was it I moved it to a spot with more room. It is alive, but is no taller than 3 1/2 feet. Perhaps the deer eat it off each winter. Mary

I'm surprised no one mentioned using nylon stockings in this old forum thread. I've used my wife's "retired" nylon stockings since the late 1970's to make dewberry/blackberrt jelly. I cut the legs into 12 inch or so long segments, tying off the ends if not using the foot, and putting them 3 or 4 thick to make the bag. A canning funnel helps to keep the bag open to load it with mashed fruit. I'm in the group that likes to squeeze the bag to shorten the collection time. Althouth, this does make the juice cloudy as noted above.. I will empty and clean the nylon bags using a garden hose nozzel for the final step in cleaning the nylon segments. and then reassemble the nylon segments and repeat the juice collection process. It usually takes about 5 to 6 collection cycles to get 6 to 7 qts of juice. After collecting the juice I put it in the refrigerator in 48 to 64 oz clear plastic bottles. In 24 or so hours, the cloudy juice settles to the bottom of the bottles and clear juice remains above. I then make as many recipes of clear jelly as I can and then finish with cloudy jelly to not waste any juice. No difference in flavor of clear vs cloudy jelly...it's only the look. Having said the above, I'm not sure nylon stockings are available anymore. They don't seem to be in fashion today. But luckily, I happen to have an old stash/supply that ceased to be replinished about 15 or so years ago.