A female blackcap (munk) feeding on ripe elderberries (svarthyll; Sambucus nigra). With no heavy frosts so far well into November, two flower clusters have appeared on the tree!
Reflowering elder: Unusual combination of elderflowers and a kayak on the fjord in November:
Part of the biggest flock of waxwings (sidensvans) in the garden today, around 350 birds!….seriously distracted all day by these photogenic arctic “parrots”! Feeding on yew (barlind), hawthorn (hagtorn), elderberries (svarthyll) and guelder rose (krossved) berries…
1. Waxwings in flight
2. Waxwings on the yew tree by the kitchen window
3. Waxwings on yew berries in the neighbour’s garden
4. Waxwings and sunrise
5. In this film you can hear waxwing poop falling to the ground…I thought it was raining!
Sambucus nigra “Samyl” is a new Danish variety of elderberry / svarthyll. It is very productive, the earliest elderberry I’ve grown (they are marginal here), hardy and it has large berries and large umbels of flowers…
I’ll be offering hardwood cuttings to members of Norwegian Seed Savers (Kvann) this winter (to be a member go to http://kvann.org and click on “Bli medlem”!
10 years ago, I wouldn’t have believed it was possible to harvest elderberries here, but with the new Danish cultivars which are both early, hardy and with large berries this album shows the result…The cultivars shown are Samyl and Samnor!
They are now drying above my wood stove..
Sambucus nigra cultivars “Samyl” and “Samnor” – Ripe elderberries were impossible here until these new Danish cultivars arrived…ripe even in a bad summer!
Otherwise: Aralia cordata (Udo) and Aralia californica berries ready to harvest for trading seed…..
Sambucus nigra “Samyl”
Aralia cordata, Udo
Aralia californica
Sambucus nigra “Samnor”
Aralia cordata has collapsed under its own weight next to Ostrich Fern
Perennial vegetables, Edimentals (plants that are edible and ornamental) and other goings on in The Edible Garden
