i read johns is early ripening. i chose the other 2 cultivars because they were supposedly more productive. maybe next year ill buy a johns and add it to the others. thanks for the info! those are some huge elderberries!

hey folks! I'm back with the same problem. have a huge set of berries this year but they aren't ripened yet. can't understand it! we are having a 15-20f above normal late summer temps and these plants still have green berries. funny thing is i have 2 S. nigra that i planted 2 years after these and they had berries ripened by early august and they're supposedly only z 4 hardy. sure hate to kill these big beautiful plants but i want elderberries!

I'm having that problem this year they didn't ripen

Oddly and for the first time all of mine were eaten by birds before they ripened. They were pea green and a flock of little red birds devoured them in a couple of days. I may try netting them next year, but didn't think I'd need to especially since they hadn't yet changed color.

i gave up on them up here. just doesn't want to ripen in time. whoever said they are able to get berries in z3 is not true. too bad as the bushes get huge with huge cymes of berries but they never ripen.

Hardiness zones don't of course address summer conditions, it may be that there are places elsewhere that have as cold a winter but significantly different summers. Summers that permit Sambucus canadensis to ripen.

Apart from that American elder occurs in both the north and the south in nature, maybe the cultivar you tried is of southern origin (range map at page below). And behaves differently as far as fruit maturation is concerned than clones from the northern part of the range. With the assurances you have read being based on results with northern origin stock.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sambucus_canadensis

I've tried johns, adams, york and wylewood. all are supposedly hardy to z3, i even found one growing wild here and it only had 1/3 of the crop ripen in 2 growing seasons before frost killed them. I've talked to the folks south of me and it seems z4b and warmer they will ripen but still only in early oct.

i even found one growing wild here and it only had 1/3 of the crop ripen in 2 growing seasons

Implication is the ones taken by birds while still green are able to germinate.

You say they finally fruited after five years. I planted several cultivars including canadensis five years ago and have yet to see fruit (or even flowers). Do they take this long to mature?? Some are six feet tall!

Same problem. Fruits (so pollination) but they remain small and green. Birds do eat them. My elderberry is the Golden type.