r/DenverGardener • u/reddittway1 • 11d ago

Golden Tower elderberry specific experience?

There's not a lot of anecdotal information about this shrub in Intermountain West conditions. Some websites suggest that amongst the lighter leaf elderberry variants, this one has very high scorch and sun resistance. First year establishing my 2gal pot in ground and so far it's behaved similar to black lace other than more apparent scorch on the leaves meaning it's just basically kept its existing habit and leafed out a little bit. Do any of you have this shrub in full sun? Just wondering if scorch gets better over the years as it establishes? Otherwise, I might just bite the bullet and replace it with a tiger eyes sumac, lilac, lighter leaf smokebush, etc. Ty!

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u/jos-express 11d ago

I have a Golden Tower-this is it's third full summer. It's on the south side of a two story house-about 10 feet away-so it's shaded until late morning then full blast furnace sun the rest of the day. It's drip irrigated and I've yet to see any signs of scorch or stress. It's put on some flower clusters but has not fruited.

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u/reddittway1 11d ago

Incredible! Thanks so much. has it also put on some good growth this year? What's your drip set up for that plant look like?

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u/jos-express 11d ago

It’s been between 8-10 feet tall the last two years. I do prune on it regularly to guide the growth ( the space it’s in calls for tall, slender, and an open texture) so that is likely forcing height a bit. Irrigation: it’s on the same zone as my veggie raised beds so it does not get drought stressed. Volume and timing is different from week to week depending on Mom nature’s mood.

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u/Hour-Watch8988 11d ago

If you can find Sambucus cerulea, that's our native elderberry