Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla 'Gerda' syn. Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla 'Black Beauty', Sambucus nigra 'Black Beauty'

#pink

Plenty of flowers this year after a tiny bit of pruning 🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸 Made the mistake of cutting it right back before which resulted in only a few flowers. #elderberry

Oh it's gorgeous Cyndi, I can't get over the almost black leaves @cyndi

I love it! I just found a space for it in my garden so off I go to Wilko tomorrow 😉 I was moving things around in my part shade corner and I realised sambucus cope with some shade quite well.

Oh how fab can't wait to see yours grow🤗 @ublaszko

I was walking past a sambucus on my morning walk today and noticed it didn't look as dark set against glossy green foliage. It looks nice with your euonymus too! You have a such a good idea for colours!

Well the two of them were actually a couple of the few plants here already when I moved in so I've been lucky with these. I'll take credit for taking the proper care of them ever since 😁 @ublaszko

They certainly look really healthy. What is the blueish shrub behind it? I say blueish but it's probably called something romantic like 'seagreen' or 'emerald' 😁

It's a conifer of some sort🤗 It's now hidden by the elder & euonymus which funny enough is called emerald n gold @ublaszko

Yes the elder is certainly very healthy this year. I took advice from @ukjohnny not to prune it last year and it's worked wonders, thanks John!👋 @ublaszko

So when do you prune it again? Someone on here mentioned that it's invasive. I don't think I have space for it's going to get massive.

I thought it might be a conifer. It looks like my blueish green Lawson's cypress 'Ellwoodii'. I also have a euonymus next to it called 'Gold queen' which is the reverse of 'Emerald and gold'. My one has green edges with gold centres.

I only pruned it ever so slightly in early winter, I didn't cut it down in size, just cut a few branches that were crossing. It's also next to a cherry blossom so I don't know if it's invasive as it doesn't have the chance to be. Cutting the few branches hasn't done it any damage so if it is invasive, perhaps it' must be controllable 🤔 @ublaszko

Pretty flowers & striking foliage ❤️ #foliagefriday

Jealous! I wish I bought one when I saw it last month 😣😁😁

Next time 😀 @ublaszko

I think I'll just have to go for it even though I don't have any more space for shrubs 😁😅😅

They get very big, mine's about 6ft!

Are these aphids?? There's lots on my black lace. Do they harm? I'm not normally squeamish but ewwwwww.

Yes squish them off with your fingers as the duck the sap out the shrub, if that sounds too ewwww then try spraying with soapy water 😁

I don't normally find they cause any damage , to get rid of them I blast them with the hose pipe repeatedly over a number of days . Hope that helps . 😘

Thanks Angie & Zoe I'll probably go with the hose idea 😊

@angiecrazycatlady I squished them off after all and wasn't squeamish at all 👌🏽

Well done once you get going it's ok 😄