Sambucus Nigra Hedging

The Common Elderflower tree, Sambucus nigra, is a large native shrub that can be used as a rough, rugged country hedging plant. It will grow almost anywhere.
Elderflower is good for hedges up to about 6 metres high.
You can also buy Golden Elder trees here. Alternatively, view our selection of native hedging or see our full range of hedging plants.

Elderflower plants are only delivered bareroot, during winter (Nov-March).
All our hedge plants are measured by their height in centimetres above the ground (the roots aren't measured).

Spacing an Elderflower hedge:
Plant Elder hedging at 2-3 plants per metre, 33-50cms apart.
This plant is aggressive and is not recommended for a mixed hedge. It will never form a tidy, formal hedge and looks best when it is allowed to get a bit overgrown.

General description of Elderflower plants:
The Common Elderflower or Elderberry is small native tree or large shrub with graceful, fern-like leaves. It produces white flowers and black berries, which are used in elderflower cordial and wine or syrup making respectively.

Elder (Sambucus nigra)is included in some mixed hedging packs although isn't really suitable for planting in the middle of a mixed hedge because it will aggressively grow into the plants beside it. You can control this with pruning, but to save you the effort we recommend using it at the end of a hedge, on a strip by itself or planting it away from the hedge and letting it grow as a large shrub or small tree. Letting it grow freely will also give you a lot more flower heads to use; elderflower cordial will store for a long time, so it's not a problem if you make gallons of it. Hawthorn berries don't have much flavour and it is a bit of a chore to remove the seed from each little fruit (it's a good job for the kids), but they are nutritious and useful for bulking up a hedgerow jam.

History & uses of Sambucus nigra:
Homemade Elderflower Cordial is a fabulous soft drink, and easy to make. Feel free to use our own elderflower cordial recipe.

Growing Elderflower plants:
Elderflower will grow well in pretty much any soil, from shallow chalk to heavy clay. About the only place it won't grow is in pure sand, but otherwise it is fine to plant near the sea. It tolerates urban pollution, waterlogging, drought and frost pockets. On the cattle farm next to our nursery, on top of a windy hill, there are several large, healthy Elderflower trees that are growing in the piled up rubble from a cow shed that was demolished about 20 years ago.
It is shade tolerant, but it needs plenty of sun if you want it to make good crops of flowers and berries.

Prepare your site before planting:
Native hedge plants like Elderflower are very tough. The only essential preparation is to kill the weeds in a strip a metre wide along the planting site: improving the soil should not be necessary. If your soil is exceptionally poor and dry, then digging in some well rotted manure and/or compost is worthwhile.

Watch our video on how to plant a country hedge for full details. The instruction to cut the plants in half after planting only applies to thorny native hedging and plants in the conservation hedge mix: this isn't necessary for Elderflower.
Remember to water establishing plants during dry weather for at least a year after planting.

Hedge Planting Accessories:
Prepare your site for planting by killing the weeds and grass with Roundup weed killer.
You can buy a hedge planting pack with sheets of mulch fabric and pegs to hold it down.
If you are planting in an area with rabbit and/or deer, you will need to use a plastic spiral guard for each plant, supported by a bamboo cane.
If your soil quality is poor, we recommend using mycorrhizal "friendly fungi" on the roots of new trees and shrubs.

Read our full terms and conditions here.

Delivery: The basic delivery charge for orders of bareroot plants is £6.50 + vat, which increases to £12.55 + vat if you add any pot-grown plants, standard trees or fruit trees to the order.
Because couriers sometimes experience delays, we schedule delivery by week, not by day. Therefore, please plan your planting day for the weekend at the end of the delivery week or for the week following delivery, at the earliest.
We will email you the day before your plants are due to arrive.

*Surcharges to the Highlands and Islands still apply.

Payment: We do not charge your card until we begin to prepare your order for packing.

Guarantee: If any plants die within a year, we will replace them. We only ask that you follow our planting & growing instructions and sent us clear photographs of the dead plants in situ, so we can help to make sure that the replacement plants succeed. You only pay for the delivery of the replacements.

Please note that our guarantee is void if there is a hosepipe ban in your area: your newly planted hedging must be watered in dry weather while it is establishing. The best way to water is very thoroughly every few days: at least once a week if there is no heavy rain.

Our nursery has been supplying container grown and bareroot hedging plants to gardeners, farmers and town planners since 1949. Our website started in 2003, so we do understand the concerns that you may have about buying hedging plants online. If any of your plants are damaged when they arrive or if you are otherwise not satisfied with your order after you inspect it, please repackage it and contact us. We will give you a refund or send replacements and send a courier to come and collect the unwanted plants.

Misc	Edible Fruit / Nuts, Wildlife Value
Shade	Partial Shade
Area	Coastal Areas, Exposed Windy Areas
Soil	Acidic, Alkaline/Chalky, Poor/Dry, Wet
Type	Native, Screening
Also Good	Fragrant

	NUMBER OF PLANTS
SIZES	1-9	10-49	50-249	250-999	1000+
60/80 cm Bareroot	Out of Stock £1.94	Out of Stock £1.08	Out of Stock £0.96	Out of Stock £0.80	Out of Stock £0.65

Common Elderberry Trees & Hedge Plants

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Sambucus Nigra Hedging