What Sizes Are Samdal Elderberries?

Plant Description

• Elderberry plants are easy to keep in a low habit but may grow from 3 to 10 feet tall. They have moderately woody stems and usually many trunks. The leaves are pinnate and comprised of many opposing leaflets with a bit of serration. The effect is lacy. Elderberry plants produce a cyme, or flat-topped cluster of white flowers. This yields to the tight clusters of ¼-inch berries. Samdal produces a bluish-black drupe or berry with three to five tiny seeds inside.

Berries

• Samdal berries are larger than most black or common elderberries. The fruit is delicious in preserves and sauces. The berries range in size from 1/5 inch up to nearly a ¼ inch wide. The berries are commonly made into elderberry wine, tea, vinegar, mead, spirits, flavored waters and as a natural colorant. Native Americans dried the fruit to save into the winter months. The peak harvest time of Samdal elderberries is between July and August. Elderberries must be cooked or dried to be edible.

Location

• The cultivar Samdal is suitable for all the zones of the United States except the hottest. The bush performs best and grows the largest cymes of 6 to 10 inches across when situated in full sun in a moist, even boggy, location. Sambucus bushes are hardy to United States Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 4 to 8. The elderberry needs acidic to slightly neutral, organic-rich soil. Elderberries sprout from the roots, regenerate after fire and seed readily.

Fruit Production

• Elderberry plants do not flower until their third or fourth year. The plants can live nearly half a century and become the most productive at middle age. The fruits may weigh as little as 0.0028 to 0.005 ounces. Full sun locations with acid, fertile soils can produce fruit that are only 0.19 inch long by 0.078 inch wide in the native species. The cultivar Samdal is much larger and produces berries almost twice the native plant's size.