Bringing Elderberry Home--Cuttings

Elderberry next to the springhouse

I have meeting most of today but I needed to do at least one thing outside.  With spring fast approaching it could be anything from getting the lambing shed ready to setting up maple buckets for sugar season.  But last year some friends and I built a summer kitchen which has affectionately become known as The Stillroom.   The reason why is a summer kitchen is used in...well...the summer.  It is a well ventilated room, sometimes even a screened in porch, often not attached to the house, where cooking, canning, and drying can be done without heating up the whole house.  This would have been my second summer kitchen because my friends and students took over my first and I found myself not having space to do MY workings.  So instead of griping (I enjoy having my friends and students around) we just built another one that is my private outdoor kitchen.

The problem is that I haven't stopped using it since we built it.  Summer finished in a blaze of autumn glory and I was still using it.  Winter froze in around us and I was still using it.  Spring's promise is on the air and I am still using it.  The space is obviously NOT just a summer kitchen.  So it has become a stillroom.

A stillroom was originally an offshoot of the witch craze of the Dark Ages.  Originally there were women (and stillrooms were ALWAYS run by women) of the village that did the medicines, made many of the ferments, preserved food enough to sell at the markets in the winter, made candies, and distilled liquor.  But as the witch craze took over Europe, many of these women were killed for staring into the cauldron as they brewed up their fare.  As more of them died, people began to miss the treasured recipes that they shared.  Well to do people simply took in many of the remaining women and set them up in "stillrooms" or rooms off the main kitchen where much of these same actions could be done for the household the women now worked for.  These women were called stillroom maids and they were the mistresses of their domain.  Because they had knowledge that was quickly fading, the lord and lady of the manor considered themselves quite lucky if they had a talented stillroom maid.

Stillrooms took their name from the fact that there was usually a still set up in some corner of the room.  Wine would be made in a cool part of the room or even in the cellar below the room, and then brandy would be distilled in a warmer corner of the room.  Liquor was a major healing source, one many herbalists still use today in the form of tinctures.  Only most of today's herbalists buy their liquor while back then the maid made hers.

So enough of the history of a stillroom.  I have one that was built last summer.  I love it and plan on using it for a very long time.  One problem though is because it is freshly built, it has no shade bushes around it.  I decided last year that I wanted to plant a few elderberry bushes here so in a few years I would be able to step right out the door of the stillroom and gather up my elderflower and elderberries.  But that needed to wait until just before the next spring actually sprung.  And here we are.  So it's time to do a few elderberry cuttings to put around the stillroom.

A two year old cutting plant by the springhouse

 

First elderberry...once I harvest from her I'll talk in more detail about her...but she is a very powerful spirit.  There are different elderberry plants all around the world, but they all have one thing in common.  Every culture they have ever grown around consider them to be endowed by a powerful female spirit.  In Europe she was The Elder Mother.  If you were to cut her without her permission she would make sure your garden never grew.  She was the healer, the "witch wood" or her branches were used most often for "witching" or dowsing a well.  She was a protector of those she liked and the bane for those she didn't.  Here on the North American continent she was known as Sister Elder.  She was the bringer of music, because her branches were easily made into flutes.  She was known as a healer here as well, and she showed water, but where she grew, not by dowsing.  Her branches were hollowed out and cut in half and used as primitive spiles for maple tapping.  She helped bring the sweet water from the trees.

I also see her as a healer.  A few weeks ago I had a young man come to me with bronchitis.  I soaked his feet in a mustard bath, rubbed a garlic plaster over those feet and gave him elderflower and yarrow tea.  We cleaned those lungs right up.  Elderflower is one of the three big fever breakers of yarrow, peppermint, and elderflower.  They help break fever WITHOUT raising it first.  She is a good plant ally to have around. 

So I'm going get some going through cuttings.  It's pretty easy to do, but there is only a short window of time to do it in, and we're right about in that window now.  Elderberries are one of the first plants to break buds in the spring, meaning her buds open up into leaves.  She sometimes does this here in Wisconsin while there is still snow on the ground.  Once those buds are open, it is too late for that year to transplant her by cutting.  So what I do is a bit radical.  I dig the snow where I want her planted and then heat the soil up, usually with my "weed burner" (though I would never use it to burn weeds).  This makes the ground a bit easier to dig a small hole for the elderberry branch to go into.  Then I need to make a cutting.

But first we need to find an elderberry bush.  If I had been writing this blog in the summer I could have shown you what one looks like in the summer, when her leaves are on.  She is much easier to tell then.  But if you already know where one or two are or you know your elderberry in the winter, you shouldn't have a problem. 

Bark of an older elderberry branch

A brief description of elderberry in the winter is as follows:  Elderberry does not tolerate drought and usually she likes to dip her toes in the water.  So look for her near creeks, in semi-open marshy areas, near springs...anyplace where water is close to the surface.  Elderberries have buds this time of year and they come off of her opposite of each other.  They are spaced up her branches in sets of two (unless there has been an injury to a particular area of a branch--then look at another area of the branch).  On young branches her bark is smooth underneath little nobs.  On older branches there are crevices in the bark.  All but the youngest of her branches will be branching, meaning they will have branches coming off of branches, with more branches coming off of those.  This gives her a kind of wild, crazy look this time of year.  And if you cut a branch off, it should have a pithy center that can easily be dented with your thumbnail. 

Bud set on a young branch

So once you have you elderberry bush, check her over.  Somewhere on her she may have a branch that doesn't branch.  This means she is healthy enough to still be growing because these are the young branches.  And these branches are what you want to work with. 

Now, if you have any of the ancient beliefs you will know not to cut without asking permission of Elder.  Almost all cultures had a fear of doing this.  If you wish you can leave a gift for her when you do make your cutting.  It is up to you but her needs are simple.  She likes water so a bit a pure water poured onto her roots may be nice or if you really want to go all out, make a bit of compost tea a few days ahead and offer that up to her.  Again, totally up to you.  Make your cutting and walk away if that is what you wish.  Your garden is not mine. LOL

Three bud sets on this branch

So go to your branches that do not branch and look for one that has at least 3 bud sets.  Go below these three buds and cut with a sharp loppers.  Make sure your loppers are sharp so you cut more than crush her.  If you have more than 3 bud sets make sure those 3 are on top and try to cut right in the middle of the next bud sets.  This give both your cane and the branch you leave behind the best chance to heal.

Two bud sets of one branch

Gather up as many of these as you need and go to the area you are going to plant.  Plant each bush at least 4 feet from the next and they work best if 6 to 10 feet apart from each other.  Dig a hole deep enough for two of the leaf sets to go into the earth and the third be above ground.  Put a little compost tea into the hole to give her a new start, put the cane into the hole and firm the dirt in around her.  Water well.  In fact for the next year you will be watering this cane well.  She will need lots of water to get a healthy root system going.

This first year you won't see much action from your "stick in the dirt".  She is building the most important part of the plant, her roots.  After a good root system has been built though, she will take off like wild fire. You may even need to trim her back from time to time. 

Now I have read how elderberry like semi shade, and in an ideal world for her this maybe true.  But I have planted her in full sun, in semi-shade and on north sides of buildings in full shade.  She does well in all of those.  Though she does need more water if she is in full sun and she will not flower as much or give as many berries if she get no sun.  You be the judge at how much work you want to put into her and how much bounty you want from her. 

That's it, you've just brought elderberry to you.  She makes a nice addition to any healer's garden and it is nice to have her close instead of always have to hike into the marsh to work with her.  Also, sometimes she grows where human projects would destroy her so instead of just letting her die, you can bring part of her to a safe place to carry on.  This is what happened to me when she decided to grow right in front of the back lambing shed door.  I needed to use that door so instead of just getting rid of her completely, I moves her clones to the south side of my springhouse.  This way my springhouse had more shade to stay cooler, I had more elderberry to work with, and she was able to carry on.  We both found it to be the best solution to the situation.

Elderberry growing outside the back door of the lambing shed

 

So, unless you live in the far deep south, now might be the best time to look around your place and see where an elderberry bush or two might fit in.  Warm the ground just enough to dig and then go out and see if she wants to come home with you.  In a few years you will have a healing companion almost beyond compare.