Some Sawfly on my Elderberry

Much to my delight, the Elderberry I got last autumn is going to flower, and has also attracted some attention from mother nature. Taxonomy on sawflies doesn't seem to be all that perfect so I'm left to conclude this little worm to be a Macrophya species.

Sawflies are the odd cousins of the Hymenopter order (Ants, Bees, and Wasps) who have a caterpillar-like larval stage that even feeds on host plants, though some are parasites on beetle larva. The adults are wasp like in appearance and it's this unusual larval stage among a few other things that separates them from wasps.

It's just the two larva that I saw on the plant, so they shouldn't eat too much.

Elderberry going to Flower

Last year I took a course at the Mt. Cuba Center about growing our native Elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, which was very informative. They went over the folk lore, how to grow them, how to make jam/jelly out of the berries, lunch was served featuring Elderberry jam, and best of all everyone got to take home a plant. Truly I'm annoyed that I can't find such wonderful classes anywhere else in my area.

So here's the plant I took home today. And to my delight, it's going to flower on at least four stems. Now one of the things I learned is that this is a very vigorous growing shrub. They push out multiple 6' stems in a year, form that perfect V shape sought after in so many shrubs for landscaping purposes. Their only real issue is they can spread a little, mostly by new stems coming up on the lower trunk and adjacent roots, however one friend told me that their plants sucker out much farther away from the plant. But I have to say of all the plants I've seen, I've never found this plant growing in a colony or grove that such root suckering would create. Something brought up at the class were plants that look like Elderberry and there's a surprising number of plants with the same leaf structure such as Poison Sumac, Sumac Trees in general, and a few others too. Also it's not uncommon for Elderberries to reseed themselves naturally anywhere that birds perch. They also root well from cuttings which I think I'll experiment with as they only only live ~20 years or so before they peter out. 

Elderberry

One of the plants featured in the upcoming book is the American Elderberry, Sambucus canadensis. As it so happened I was looking for plants to put in when I got a newsletter from the Mt. Cuba Center telling me about a class that weekend on Elderberries. And upon researching Elderberries apparently Honeybees help pollinate the flowers to increase yields at the end of the year. How could I say no?

Probably the most valuable thing I got from the class was what they meant by it being a "Suckering Plant." Elderberries are among the most vigorous growing plants you'll ever grow. They seriously push out 6' long stems in a year, and they don't stop growing until they reach 12' or so. Most places on the internet praise this plant for how "aggressive" it is at growing. HOWEVER! This is a very friendly plant and appropriate for any garden needing a large shrub.

All of the sucker come up at the trunk or close to the root ball. They do not come up anywhere that the roots have spread out to! Treat this plant like an ordinary shrub. (If you want an awful plant that does spread aggressively by root suckers along the roots, I recommend Trumpet Vine.) Pictured above are two Elderberry plants. One is allowed to grow into a 12' shrub. The other is cut back every year and is kept short to 6' as a result. Flowers occur on both new growth and old, the more sunlight the better, the more plants around, the better your fruit yields. If they get too much shade they won't fruit at all.

A fair amount of the class was devoted to jam making! This was the Mt. Cuba Center's first attempt at a food demonstration and boy was it a success.

Elderberries can produce anywhere from 12 to 15lbs of fruit each year. If you're able to harvest them before the birds do, making jam is probably the best application. They showed us everything except for sterilizing the jars.

Sadly they don't have a food license and we weren't able to take any home.

So while we waited for things to be made, they fed us! Elderberry jam tastes just like Grape Jelly but without the grape flavor. Same texture and everything just not that acidic grape taste. It goes great with crackers and goat cheese.

After such a wonderful course I really didn't care that the plant I was give barely fit in my car. Pot included, the elderberry plant I got to take home was around 5' tall (6 months worth of growth, I'm told). Assuming it produces fruit next year you can bet I'll be making jam, or jelly, or a mess or something, next year!