A small, hardy shrub, easy to grow, red elderberry is decorative from spring onwards thanks to its deeply lobed foliage and large clusters of small flowers. In late summer, it is adorned with beautiful bunches of small, bright red berries.
This shrub can reach 3 to 5 meters in height for the typical variety and grows quickly. Its natural habit is bushy and more or less spreading, forming dense clumps, but it can also be easily pruned to give it a small tree shape.
Red elderberry is suitable for gardens to create natural hedges. It can be planted alongside black elderberry, or grown as a specimen plant.
Its flowers and especially its berries still have culinary uses, such as for making delicious jellies or brandy.
Caution: the red berries are only edible if all the seeds, which are toxic, are first removed from the crushed pulp.
As with black elderberry, the hollow wood of its young branches can be used to make blowguns, whistles, or flutes for children. You can also use its leaves as a compost inoculant or to make an insecticidal liquid fertilizer suitable for organic gardening.
Source: Red Elderberry: Planting and Growing – Ooreka
