Photos, please! :)

I love them too, saw glorious mature 'Black Beauty' and 'Black Lace' at display gardens this year. Sadly, my tiny urban lot doesn't have room.

I love the colorful ninebarks too.

Blue elderberry is a common name, not a cultivar name. You don't say where you are, but wild specimens tend to occur south and east of Seattle area - although there are some here. Characteristic of open places, maybe the shade where you planted them was a problem. Somewhat sporadic availability in the trade, results from propagation attempts variable.

Yes, photos would be nice. Thanks for sharing your experience with them. I've been thinking of getting one. When you said all were doing well except the blue did you mean the 'caerulea' ?

I really need to get a camera! All of your pictures are so helpful. I am in the Oak Grove area of Milwaukie - Portland suburb. (My lot is on what was a holly farm years ago.) The blue caerulea were very small to begin with, but they had long healthy roots. They were planted the first weekend in May in an area of heavy clay (two nearby butterfly bushes struggle.) Wasn't sure if blue is the one that smells bad so didn't want them close to the house. My excitement about the others may be premature as they haven't gone through a winter yet. Wish I had measured the height of the 'Pyramidalis' when planted because they grew alot. They were the one gallon size.

Thanks for your feedback. As you can probably tell ... I'm new at gardening.

You will have no trouble with cold hardiness of elders there, at least not due to climate conditions. Possibly if the soil is damp and heavy one or two kinds might have trouble ripening their growth and show some tip dieback during winter, or get too wet in winter and then die back because of that (instead of cold). Native red elders often have much dead wood on some sites, for whatever reason(s).

buyorsell888, I have one of the purple ones (I forget which one) and have a tiny urban lot like you do, but it's worked out great. I kept it in a pot for years and years. This spring, we finally planted it on planting strip between the sidewalk and the street. The conditions there are so tough there that it isn't growing at all, which is exactly what I was hoping for. I get more compliments on it; everyone who walks by wants to know what it is.

But it was beautiful in a pot, too. Put it in the shade since it scalds horribly in hot, hot sun, and enjoy!
:)

Wondered how the sambucus did in your zone. I just bought some today and I live in NC.

My Sambucus nigras are all still pretty small, but S. caerulea grew rather quickly into a huge monster. This last winter's snows broke off several 15' branches all around the plant, it's rather weak shrubby wood. It's magnificent but I can't picture it in a city lot. I see a Pileated Woodpecker that comes to eat the berries sometimes, the Woody Woodpecker bird, complete with the wild jungle call.

All of them are in a rather wild neglected part of my yard where they seldom get any supplemental water, but not far from the septic drain field. S. canadensis 'York' has a few berries, the nigras sometimes have a few. They are all shaded by very tall woods to the south.

Photo from Schreiner's Iris Gardens last year, this one is at least twelve feet tall.

I have a 'Black Beauty' and love it. Even as a juvenile last year it impressed. I picked it over the 'Black Lace' because the leaves seemed to me to hold up better through the season. It wintered really well and as it leaves out it's a nice contrast to everything around it.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:1086647}}

You will be happy to learn that the black elderberry in clinical trials has proven effective against human, swine and avian flu. Just bought a lot of sambucus syrup and tablets to prep for the pandemic.

Before when getting flu, taking sambucus tablets greatly diminished the severity of the flu.

If I had room in my yard I'd plant these beautiful useful black elderberries.

cascadians- The S. nigras are supposed to get to 6-8' but mine in a poor area of the yard are only 3-4' tall after several years. They can also be trimmed every year to keep them smaller. I am disappointed in mine as to size but considering that the soil is poor and too far from hoses to get much supplemental water, they are OK. They are certainly not the tough and hi-yielding plants that
Aronia Viking is, if you were interested in fruit production instead of pretty foliage.