Cold hardiness

Future

2050

2100

These values are location-based: this location's current hardiness is the baseline, and the 2050 value is a projected future climate for this same location.

Now

Zone 6b

USDA

Published baseline for this location from 1991-2020.

Source: USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map 2023 (1991-2020 climatology) via ArcGIS FeatureServer

Well-suited

2050

Zone 7a

Plotwright

Projected zone for this same location in 2050 (2041-2070) using SSP3-7.0 (regional rivalry).

Well-suited

In plain terms: This location is in Zone 6b today. Its hardiness profile is cold winters, and coldest nights are typically around -3°F. By 2050, the projected hardiness zone is Zone 7a based on SSP3-7.0 (regional rivalry). That is a +0.5-zone shift from Zone 6b to Zone 7a by 2050.

✓

Well-suited today and still thriving in 2050.

Heat tolerance

Future

2050

2100

Heat tolerance values are location-based too: heat days today are observed at this site, and the 2050 value projects this same location under a future climate.

Loading AHS heat-zone data for this location...

Where this plant fits

Suitable across 41 ecoregions — 40 climate-resilient through 2070 · 1 suited today. Best matches first.

Appalachian mixed mesophytic forests

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Appalachian-Blue Ridge forests

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Arizona Mountains forests

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Atlantic coastal pine barrens

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Blue Mountains forests

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Canadian Aspen forests and parklands

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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

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Central Tallgrass prairie

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Central-Southern Cascades Forests

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Chilean Matorral

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What it needs

Conditions

Light

Full sun / Part shade

Water

Consistent moisture

Spacing

120"

Habit

Large multi-stemmed native deciduous shrub to small tree

Care tips

•

Give it real room — at 15-30 feet tall and wide it reads as a small tree, not a tidy border shrub.

•

Site in full sun in soil that stays medium-to-wet for the heaviest fruit set; it tolerates clay and wet ground.

•

Plan for maintenance: remove suckers, prune dead wood in late winter, and expect wind or heavy snow to break branches.

Lifecycle

Planting

Plant in spring or fall in medium-to-wet, well-drained soil in full sun for best fruit production; tolerates part shade, clay, and wet soil. Give it room — it reaches 15-30 feet tall and wide (Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder).

Transplanting

Move young plants in spring or fall while dormant with a generous root ball; established multi-stemmed clumps resent disturbance.

Early growth

Keep evenly moist through establishment. Remove suckers unless you are deliberately establishing a naturalized colony.

Maturity

Mature plants reach 15-30 feet with June-July flower cymes followed by powder-blue drupes in late summer. Rated high-maintenance: prune dead growth in late winter, and expect wind or heavy snow/ice to damage branches (Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder).

Propagation

Hardwood or softwood cuttings root readily; seed needs warm-then-cold stratification. Verify cultivar restrictions before propagating named selections.

Pollination

Self-fertile (better with a partner)

Blue elderberry produces large flat-topped cymes of small yellowish-white flowers that draw bees and butterflies (the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center flags it as a nectar source and notes it attracts birds and butterflies). The species is generally insect-pollinated and produces fruit readily, but as with other elderberries, fruit set is heaviest when more than one plant is present to support cross-pollination. The species pages do not assign a fixed cultivar pollination requirement.

Plants don't grow alone

Larval host

Butterfly

Spring azure (Celastrina ladon)

Fruit forage

Bird

Eastern bluebird (Sialia sialis)

Fruit forage

Bird

Downy woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens)

Fruit forage

Bird

American robin (Turdus migratorius)

Fruit forage

Bird

Eastern songbirds (multi-species) (multiple species (Passeriformes))

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center documents that birds (along with bears, deer, elk, and moose) feed on the drupes, and both LBJ and Missouri Botanical Garden flag the showy fruit as attractive to birds. (Plotwright has no western-songbird-specific wildlife entity yet; mapped to the generic songbird forager.)

Foliage forage

Mammal

White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)

For people

Edible with preparation

Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder describes the fruit as showy and edible: not palatable raw off the plant, but tasty when cooked into sauces, jellies, pies, and the classic elderberry wine. As with other elderberries, the raw fruit, leaves, stems, and bark are generally regarded as unsafe to eat uncooked — cook the ripe berries and avoid the green/uncooked parts.

Edible parts

fruit (cooked)

Native range

Native across 12 US states + 1 CA province.

AHS heat range

4-11

Native ecoregions

Naturally belongs in 25 ecoregions — its native range crosses a state or province each one spans (not necessarily this exact habitat).

Arizona Mountains forests

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Blue Mountains forests

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California coastal sage and chaparral

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Canadian Aspen forests and parklands

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Central Pacific Northwest coastal forests

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Central-Southern Cascades Forests

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Chihuahuan desert

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Colorado Rockies forests

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Cross-Timbers savanna-woodland

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Eastern Cascades forests

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Climate notes

•

Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder lists Sambucus nigra ssp. cerulea for USDA zones 4-9 in full sun to part shade with medium-to-wet water; height and spread are each 15-30 feet, bloom is yellowish-white in June-July, and the fruit is showy and edible.

•

The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center documents it native across the western US and into Canada (USDA native status L48 N, CAN N), from the California Sierras and Coast Ranges north to southern British Columbia and east to Alberta and New Mexico.

•

Missouri Botanical Garden PlantFinder rates maintenance high and notes susceptibility to canker, powdery mildew, leaf spot, borers, spider mites, and aphids, plus wind and heavy snow/ice breakage; it tolerates clay and wet soil.

•

Tolerates mild to hot summer heat — a western-North-American native spanning montane and coast-range climates from southern British Columbia south through California and into the desert Southwest (AZ, NM), so it persists from Mild into Hot-tier summers where soil moisture holds.

In the designer

Growth over time

180-360" tall · 180-360" spread

Mature multi-stemmed frame with full flower cymes and fruit.

Design roles: Structure · Focal point · Pollinator

Seasonal interest

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

Filled = the plant has seasonal interest · ▾ now = your current season

Blue elderberry

At a glance

Related products

Why it matters

Cold hardiness

Heat tolerance

Where this plant fits

What it needs

Lifecycle

Pollination

Plants don't grow alone

For people

Native range

Climate notes

In the designer

Seasonal interest

Sources & citations