Hi
My hubbie loves elderflower and i want to have a go at making some elderflower drinks but cant find the plant.
help
cambourne7
It is a tree/bush and you can find it growing in hedgerows, go for a nice walk along a canalside or nature reserve and you are bound to see one and then you could take a cutting from it.
Does anybody know if the black form sold as a decorative plant has the same eating qualities? I have a ready supply on the allotments but couldn't bring myself to plant a normal one!
???
Presumably with your nickname you are at Cambourne in Cambridgeshire. If so, there are lots of bushes growing in the hedgerows and in May/June you can pick flowers in abundance, certainly all along the Devils Ditch footpath near Newmarket. No need to buy a bush because they get very large, the berries seed themselves everywhere and you will know when they are ripe because your car/washing etc will be covered with bird excrement after they have had a good feed.
Just remember you can use the flowers and the fruit, but not the leaves or wood of the Elderflower bush/tree.
Hi All,
Yes good old cambourne in cambridgeshire :-)
Many thanks i have set my self a reminder for may 2007 to go looking at the hedges.
May be back then for identification :-)
Cambourne7
They will be covered in berries at the moment- clusters of small purple ones- so you sould identify them yourself and go back in May for the flowers!
hi all, :D
Quote from: saddad on September 07, 2006, 18:29:19
Does anybody know if the black form sold as a decorative plant has the same eating qualities? I have a ready supply on the allotments but couldn't bring myself to plant a normal one!
???
Yes saddad, the black ornamental variety, called black lace sambuca, is perfectly edible. For those worried about the size of the bush/tree, elder can be cut down hard every winter so you can keep the thing under control. We have 2 of the black lace varieties, & these grow to about 3 metres tall during the summer with very attractive foliage, when the leaves fall off, late autumn time, they are cut down to about 50 cms/ 1 metre above the ground.
Adrian.