Blurry view of a field through a rain soaked screen

Herbs - new plants; established plants

Leo Edmiston-Cyr

I have been growing Elderberries from selected local varieties for several years now.  This last year, I decided to buy some named varieties.  I bought 6 new elderberry plants from Fedco trees last winter along with some perennial herbs.  They arrived this spring and I planted them all the next day.  That order consisted of

  • five Elderberry (Sambucus canadensis)
  • one Elderberry (Sambucus nigra)
  • three Blue vervain (Verbena hastata)
  • one witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

Here are the new elderberries now; my biggest surprise has been that all six are growing robustly (an understatement almost!).  I was further surprised that all the canadensis are flowering.  The nigra is not, but looks equally healthy.  Yea!  They like they're new home.

canadensis with three flower clusters (cymes)
canadensis with three flower clusters (cymes)
canadensis, healthy in flower
canadensis, healthy in flower
canadensis, healthy in flower
canadensis, healthy in flower
canadensis, healthy in flower
canadensis, healthy in flower
canadensis, healthy in flower
canadensis, healthy in flower
nigra which looks robust, but has no flowers
nigra which looks robust, but has no flowers

Here is the lone witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiana)

This witch hazel was planted this spring. I has nearly doubled in size and leafed out nicly.

And a look at the established elderberry cluster that I started from a number of cuttings taken from select wild stands in the area

The established elder stand july 4th in full flower (canadensis)
The established elder stand july 4th in full flower (canadensis)
The established elder stand today with most flowers starting to mature to berries (canadensis)
The established elder stand today with most flowers starting to mature to berries (canadensis)

I also have one Sambucus raecmosa kicking around for comparison... and the birds... and a backdrop to photograph Indy, the cat :)

A mature Sambucus racemosa or red elderberry with a lovely grey and white cat named Indy out front

Walking around a little more, here are some yarrow in flower

Some yarrow (Achillea millefolium) in flower
Some yarrow (Achillea millefolium) in flower

St. John's wort

St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) braving the rain to bloom
St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum) braving the rain to bloom
More St. John's wort
More St. John's wort
And even more St. John's wort! With a bowl of freshly harvested aerial parts
And even more! Notice the bowl? I managed to harvest some this morning before the rain. More on that in another post.

That's all for now.  I'm going to go for a bike ride while it only rains lightly for the next couple hours.

In a future post I'll share an update on the herbs I harvested this morning before the rain and the progress on the herb dryer which is clearly even more valuable than usual with the weather we've been having of late.

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