Sambucus Nigra Black Lace
is a shrub so very full of grace
with a delicious haunting aroma
just like her Elderflower sister.
She will eventually grow into trees
with her dainty lacy black leaves
and flowers all pink and frothy.
She’s my front garden Black Beauty.
Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla ‘Black Lace’
(purple elder)
My front garden black beauty
I can remember when I saw my first so well named Sambucus Nigra “Black Lace”. It was at the BBC Gardeners World Live Show at the NEC in June 2005. The next time I saw one I can well remember where. It was at a National Gardens Scheme village open gardens in Litchborough, Northamptonshire in June 2008, where our social group used to go now and again, especially as the village hall served a range of home made cakes to die for. In the gardens owned by an architect there was one of these beautiful plants, that I had photographed at the NEC three years earlier, which had grown into a tree. When I saw it, of course I just had to buy one at the first opportunity. Judging by the size of the plant in 2012, I think I probably bought the plant in 2008 or 2009.
I planted it in my front garden in the shrub border between me and next door, basically to screen next door’s boat and row of wheelie bins. Prior to owning this Sambucus I had a common Elderflower self set in that bed which had grown too big for its boots, which I had dug out and replaced with a Photinia Red Robin. That of course is a large evergreen which screens the boat all year round. I am looking for another less rampant evergreen to fill the remaining gap behind my Rosemary bush and this Sambucus, which is already fighting for space with a Forsythia. I should then have a complete screen all the year round. The Sambucus will eventually be a small tree, but I don’t want to stunt her growth in the meantime by planting a dominant evergreen before she has reached her potential desired height.
My Black Lace took a while to grow, as did the other shrubs that I planted, but now I have quite an effective screen during the summer. The photos below show the shrub at the end of May 2012, just coming into flower and this year on 26th June in full flower. I don’t seem to have taken any other photos of it between 2012 and 2015, but there again it is in my front garden, not in the back where I sit.
I have it on good authority that the flowers can be made into Elderflower cordial and the berries into wine, like the common variety of Elderflower. I once tried to make an Elderflower drink from the flowers on my common Elderflower, but gave up when I found so many insects living in the flowers which all came to the surface of the bowl of water I soaked the flowers in. That rather put me off!
The downside to having an Elderflower by one’s driveway though is that the berries drop all over the car and stain it, so I never park my car that side of the driveway when it is fruiting!
My next step is to take some of the bunches of berries that will form after the flowers have finished and drop them casually in my wildlife garden area in the hope that another plant grows, as I would love one in the back garden as well. However, I doubt that the birds would leave them to seed themselves so I will actually plant some in a pot as well. The wild variety seems to manage to come up in my back garden on a regular basis, but I never let it grow. Perhaps I should.
I call this my Black Beauty, but there is apparently another variety of Sambucus Nigra called Black Beauty, but that does not have the dainty lacy black leaves like Black Lace. The Black Beauty leaves are more solid like the common Elderflower leaves. Still beautiful though.
To quote:- Wyevale Garden Centre:–
Sambucus nigra f. porphyrophylla ‘Black Lace’ (purple elder) is a recent introduction to the elder scene with gorgeous lacy dark purple foliage. Musk-scented soft pink flower heads appear in May and June followed by edible black berries. A delicious pink cordial can be made from the flowers and excellent wine from the berries. Unpruned it will make a magnificent large shrub to 4-5m high, a spectacular sight in full flower. Alternatively, to keep it compact, to around 1.5-1.8m, and promote larger, even more impressive leaves, it can be pruned hard in late winter, making a superb foliage plant for a mixed border.
Thrives in any reasonable soil, with best foliage colour in full sun.
This plant has an RHS Award of Garden Merit.
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