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British sensation reaches North America

BLACK BEAUTY™Sambucus 

Black Beauty™ elderberry (Sambucus nigra) is a new ornamental elderberry with incredible dark foliage all season long.  Beautiful delicate pink lace-cap flowers (up to six inches across) with a lemon fragrance cover the plant in mid summer followed by berries in the fall.

Black Beauty™ elderberry is the result of a special breeding program at HRI East Malling. This in itself is unique because East Malling is best know for its work with dwarf fruit tree under-stocks.  Black Beauty is the first ornamental plant to come out of their breeding program.

Black Beauty™ elderberry will be available through mail order nurseries in the Spring of 2002.  It will also, be available as a perennial through many of the best garden centers in the country.  You will find these garden centers listed under resources at 

Characteristics of Black Beauty™ Elderberry:

• Intense dark burgundy, purple foliage.  Darker than any Physocarpus currently available.

• Foliage color is consistent from Spring through the fall.

• The first Elderberry to produce pink flowers with a lemon fragrance.

• Flowers in June-July.

• The purple-black berries are suitable for producing jam or wine.

• Hardy into zone 4.

• Tolerates a wide range of soil types.

• Grows in full sun or partial shade.

• Can be used effectively in the perennial or the shrub border.

• Fantastic as the feature element in a container.

 For more information please contact Spring Meadow Nursery, at 800-633-8859 or tim@springmeadownursery.com.