• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Home Garden Joy
  • Home
  • How to Garden
    • Seed Starting
    • Plant Profiles
    • Tools & Equipment
    • Raised Bed Gardening
  • Vegetables
  • Fruit
  • Herbs
  • About
    • Books & Classes
      • Herbalism Classes
      • Books for Christian Herbalists
      • Privacy Policy

New Plants for the Garden: Growing Elderberry

February 6, 2017 by Jeanne

I’ve begun seriously studying herbalism again. About 25 years ago, I studied Bach flower essences and herbalism before either was trendy. I set my studies aside for a long time, but now the seed planted long ago has grown again. I am back studying plant-based diets, herbalism, flower essences, and healing from the garden.

So far, I’ve completed two official courses: An Introduction to Herbal Medicine from the Chestnut School of Herbal Medicine, and a Materia Medica Course from the Herbal Institute. Both were fantastic classes, inspirational, well-taught and filled with important information. Herbal books filled with highlights and underscores are piling up in my plant room around my reading chair as I once again dig into my studies. It feels good to be learning again!

My pantry is also filling with jar after jar of dried herbs and now tonics such as fire cider. In the spring, I will make my first batches of herbal tincture and flower essences.

All of this led me re-discovering elderberry. We have one wild elderberry bush near our home, but it’s not on our land, and it’s on a busy corner where cars whiz by and can’t see if you’re a crazy herbalist and forager trying to lean over a cattle fence to pluck some elderberry flowers….not that I have done this, mind you. Oh no, not me.

I’ve walked through our woods several times and although we have wonderful wild flowers, no elderberry in site. So I decided I would add some of my own to the treeline near my garden shed. It’s a great spot near enough to the rest of the vegetable garden so that I’ll tend the trees but not so close to the house that if they spread aggressively, they won’t take over the garden.

Elderberry syrup is a time-honored cough syrup and cold remedy. I’ve seen recipes for elderberry ice pops that are also great when you have a sore throat. I’d like to have a pantry full of home remedies for simple family needs such as these.

Elderberry seeds require stratification for germination. Many tree seeds and some flower seeds need winter weather in order to germinate. Stratification simulates the conditions that open up the hard outer protective coating around the germ of the seed. It’s the seed’s signal to sprout.

I realized that we stratified our apple tree seeds collected from the old trees on the Appalachian Trail. We simply planted them in the fall in pots on the deck, allowing nature’s freezing and thawing to stratisfy the seeds.

All I need to do is soak my elderberry seeds overnight in water, then mash the protective fiber off of the hard inner seed coat. Next, the seeds can be planted in potting soil in containers. The containers can then be left on the deck until May. The daytime heating, followed by the nighttime freeze, is just righ to stratisfy the seeds. Hopefully they will germinate…and I won’t need an acid bath!!!

The things you learn as a gardener. I can’t wait until it’s time for growing elderberry in the garden and sharing with you its progress.

Filed Under: Herb Gardens

Previous Post: « An Edible Front Yard
Next Post: Starting Seeds Indoors: Equipment and Supplies »

Primary Sidebar

Let’s Connect!

  • Facebook
  • Instagram

As Seen in Porch

 As Seen in Porch

We were featured in Porch.com and answered reader's questions about indoor plants.

Explore All Gardening Articles

a zucchini growing in a raised bed

Growing Zucchini in Raised Beds

kale growing in a raised bed

Replenishing Raised Bed Garden Soil

raised bed garden

How to Build a Vegetable Garden Using Raised Beds

a watering can next to a seed tray on a sidewalk

What Veggies Can I Plant Now?

Herbalism Classes & Supplies

Goods Shop by Herbal Academy – botanically inspired products

Disclosure

Home Garden Joy participates in two affiliate programs: Amazon and The Herbal Academy. Home Garden Joy earns a commission from qualifying purchases as an Amazon Associate. As an Herbal Academy Associate, HGJ also earns a commission when you sign up for classes or purchase herbs or supplies from The Herbal Academy. Herbal information and recipes on this site are provided for educational purposes only.

Footer

butternut squash growing in a raised garden bed

How to Grow Butternut Squash Organically

Learning how to grow butternut squash organically ensures you know how to grow this tasty, nutritious vegetable in your home garden. I’ll share with you some basic information on growing butternut squash, followed by some organic gardening tips that have been helpful for me here at Seven Oaks Farm in dealing with the various pests…

Read More

herbs in a pink dish

How to Make the Perfect Cup of Herbal Tea

Make the perfect cup of herbal tea, right from your own garden! In May, I gave two free talks on how to grow, harvest, dry, and create your very own herbal teas. This lecture proved so popular that I recorded the narration and uploaded it to YouTube. You can view it below: Supplies to Make…

Read More

tent caterpillars on a pear tree

How to Get Rid of Tent Caterpillars

I spent last Saturday morning getting rid of Eastern tent caterpillars from the apple and pear trees in the orchard here on the farm. Malacosoma americanum, the Eastern tent caterpillar, is a regular visitor each spring. We first spot the shimmery webs on a clear spring day. The small ‘tents’ built by the caterpillars quickly…

Read More

kale growing in a raised bed

Replenishing Raised Bed Garden Soil

Raised bed vegetable garden soil soil needs to be replenished periodically. If you’ve done your job right and selected great soil, and amended it with nice compost, you’re going to have super garden soil for the first few years. Because you don’t walk on a raised bed garden the way that you do with typical…

Read More

  • Privacy Policy
  • About
  • Awards

Copyright © 2025 Home Garden Joy on the Foodie Pro Theme