April in my climate. Can you see the buds clusters yet? What shape do you want it? Elders are never going to be small, neat shrubs. They look better allowed to be more natural and rejuvenated periodically. If yours is only a year old I doubt it needs pruning at all.

i would not prune anything until the second season ...

if you just planted last year.. why are you already needing to prune it???

ken

and by that i mean next year ... 2 years in the ground ....ken

i remember the rest of the story ... now anyway.. lol .. ken

There are 2 lower branches going the wrong way. One will cover a path I need to use into the garden...After the bulk was planted, I found some routes for maintenance are less fraught with the danger of damage than others.

But that whole bed is a work in progress, with me changing my mind about what I want and where it should go. Another points into a peony.

The rest is fine. For now ;) It's probably a poor choice for that area, but I have not come up with anything else that's the right color / leaf form.

If the elder is already getting in the way after 1 year it is planted in the wrong place. If it needs constant pruning to keep it small it will always look misshapen. It just isn't a shrub suited to being tightly controlled. You are looking at a plant that wants to be at least eight feet in all directions.

Any ideas for substitutes? I chose it for the purple ferny leaves. When we moved to this house 30 years ago and started with a blank slate, but a house-poor budget: I originally had a red barberry, but got tired of the thorns and the ugly shape; and a purple sand cherry, which always looked weedy. I need purple / wine/ burgundy / dusky red to balance the other colors: plus it's a color echo for the house brick color.

Is there a sumac with red leaves? Weigela?

Sigh....If I'm going to move this, I'd better do it soon. I have a place I could put it in the back yard where it could get as big as it wanted, though it wouldn't get noticed very much :(

What size space do you have? If we know that I'm sure others can come up with a suitable substitute for your climate.

I planted mine in a half whiskey barrel 2 falls ago and have had no problem keeping it the size I want thus far. I pruned off the odd branch but have more or less let it grow on its own and hasn't shown any desire to be out of control (maybe because it's in a container). In fact, I remember watching some YouTube videos where they were saying that it did well with some hard pruning every year, like down to a stump. Anyway, the point is if it's generally working for you, what is the harm in pruning it as you like before looking for a replacement...

The space is about 3 feet wide. Ideally, 2 1/2 would be better. Vertically, up to 6 foot, but I'd be happy with anything 4 feet up to 6 feet. I also wanted the lacy leaves to allow a bit of a peek through plus some sun through: therefore I'd prefer to avoid anything that grew too densely.

re: Farmer's almanac: that said we'd have a harsh winter! Instead, we had a very mild one. I think I only shoveled twice.

But I know that just because it's been an early spring, doesn't mean we won't still get snow.

My Mom always told the story of going to the hospital to have me in the second week of May in a driving snowstorm. The car got a flat tire and she walked the rest of the way trudging through a foot of snow.

Lalennoxa, thanks for the idea, but a container wouldn't look right in this space.

There's a couple very petite weigela, red leaved. Names escape me right now. That small, i may also think of perennials...heuchera?

If you move to thinking about large scale perennials, take a look at Actaea simplex, several nice black leaved cultivars.

I've given up on purple heuchera! They don't like my yard. The gold ones do well (Knock on wood).

I already have an Actea Black Negligee and an Actea Brunette in that bed, opposite side (the latter still only 2 inches high, even after 2-3 years). It was the lovely leaf shape on those that gave me the idea to buy the Elderberry!

Just to clarify: it wasn't a suggestion to put yours in a container, I was just saying mine was. What I was saying is that if you like your elderberry, it can take some heavy regular pruning, at least that it what I understand. It's your call regarding how much time and effort you put into pruning it the way you want it to be.