American Elderberry - All Questions

It is considered a deer-resistant plant. However, deer are going to and will feed on elderberries if they are hungry enough. It is not a preferred food choice for them, but like any other plant labeled as deer resistant, if they are hungry enough the deer may browse on the plants. I would suggest if you are in a heavy deer population, you either cage or use repellent to prevent deer browse.

The latin name is Sambucus canadensis, this is not a cultivar.

At this time, Chief River Nursery only ships plants in the spring. Each year, our nursery takes orders from late September through late May. The seedlings are harvested as soon as the frost is out of the ground, and shipping typically begins in early to mid-April. All seedling orders will be delivered by late May unless other arrangements have been made.

When we begin shipping, orders are sent out in the order that they were placed. However, we are mindful of orders placed in warmer and colder climates and typically ship them earlier or later on in our shipping process. We are also respectful of orders that have requested specific shipping weeks and work those in during the process accordingly.

Customers who place their order through our website have the ability to choose a window of time in which their order is delivered. This is located in the “Timing of Delivery” section on the checkout page. There, customers can choose a week in spring, based on your location and the anticipated item availability, and we will ship the order accordingly. When possible, we recommend using the default selection and allow us to ship your order at the most appropriate time (based on the harvest schedule and weather in your area). This should ensure that you do not receive your order too early in the event of a late snow melt. We do our best to monitor snow cover in all regions as we move into spring, and ship your trees or shrubs so that you do not receive them too early to plant.

If you choose to arrange the delivery week at the time of the order, it will supersede our discretion and your order will ship. We must be alerted at least one week prior to your chosen shipping week in order to make changes to your shipping schedule.