Black Elder

Sambucus Black Lace has almost black, dissected foliage, and from May to June has pale pink, musk-scented blooms emerging from beautiful creamy-pink buds. It makes an excellent shrub for all styles of gardens and has the added bonus of having blackish-red berries in autumn which are attractive to birds. For best foliage colour grow it in full sun, otherwise it can fade to a greenish-bronze.

 To achieve the best foliage effect cut back to ground level each year in early spring and apply a generous 5-7cm (2-3in) mulch of well-rotted garden compost or manure around the base. Alternatively, allow to grow into a large specimen shrub for the back of the border and just give it a light trim in summer after flowering if you don't want it to produce berries (the berries can be used for making elderberry wine - but they won't come true from seed so may lead to the appearance of common elder seedlings if the shrub is allowed to go to seed).