Good luck with your elderberry grove - exciting!
After my bad luck with the field of elderberries I discovered last year, at least I had already taken a few cuttings from the one bush I found nearer my house, at least two of them are now growing strongly, and I'll plant them out toward the beginning of May.
They've overwintered on my covered front porch, and despite the intermittent freezes, they're protected enough that they've already leafed out. Hopefully that will give us a bit of a jump on the season.
I'm planning to bring in more, as you need two varieties for best fruit set, and I'm starting some from seed as we speak. As they grow quite quickly, I should have really excellent production within a couple of years, provided of course we can fence against the deer.
Funny, because my sister, a master gardener in Texas, considers them all but useless, as she finds the berries too onerous to harvest. Which to me is borderline insane, as you can just cut a bract at a time and take them home to strip the berries, but to each their own. Her loss.
I'm anxious for a steady supply, as elderberries are the one and only fruit my doves have ever gone nuts for. When we were still in Florida, I gave them a bract of ripe berries pretty regularly, which they would completely strip clean in minutes. Smart birds.
This is really good info to know! Thanks for posting all that!