Bob Gordon Elderberry

The Bob Gordon American Elderberry was identified and collected from the wild by Robert Gordon, Charlotte Cooper, and Andrew Thomas near Osceola, Missouri, on September 29, 1999. This Elderberry is a very productive cultivar with large clusters of flavorful purple berries and it has become a staple of a regional elderberry-growing industry. This variety grows 8' or more tall and is loaded with clusters of fruit that droop down, usually below the foliage. This keeps birds from robbing fruit from the bushes, making this variety particularly valuable for growers visited by large flocks of wild birds. You can choose to cut the bush to the ground each winter to control its size and each year it will produce fruit on first year wood. Fun fact: Plant a different variety of S. canadensis nearby to receive the best yields on both plants.