Lemony Lace® Elderberry

Golden Cutleaf Foliage That Lights Up the Landscape

Lemony Lace® Elderberry is a colorful ornamental elderberry grown for its finely dissected golden foliage, soft texture, and bright landscape presence. The leaves emerge with red tones in spring, then shift into glowing yellow, chartreuse, and lime-green shades as the season progresses. The look is light, feathery, and dramatic without feeling heavy.

This shrub is especially useful when a planting bed needs contrast. Use it near dark evergreens, purple foliage shrubs, blue-green conifers, burgundy perennials, or deep green foundation plants to make the whole landscape feel more intentional. Its texture gives a Japanese-maple-like effect, but in a hardy, fast-growing shrub form.

White Spring Flowers and Red Berries for Birds

In early spring, Lemony Lace® Elderberry can produce clusters of creamy white flowers before or as the foliage develops. The flowers add a fresh seasonal detail, but the foliage is the main reason gardeners choose this plant. After flowering, red berries may follow later in the season if the shrub is not pruned too heavily.

Those red berries are ornamental and attractive to birds, but they are not for human eating. This is an ornamental red elderberry selection, not an edible American elderberry grown for syrup, jelly, wine, or harvest. If you want elderberries for fruit production, choose edible American elderberry selections instead.

A Deer-Resistant Shrub With Big Foliage Impact

Lemony Lace® Elderberry is valued for being easy to grow, colorful, and very deer-resistant in many landscapes. That combination makes it especially useful in foundation plantings, mixed borders, woodland edges, wildlife gardens, and informal hedges where foliage color matters as much as flowers.

The finely cut leaves give the plant a soft, airy texture that pairs well with broadleaf shrubs and heavier evergreens. Plant it with boxwood, inkberry holly, arborvitae, viburnum, hydrangea, spirea, smokebush, ninebark, ornamental grasses, catmint, heuchera, or coneflowers for contrast in color and leaf shape.

Best Color in Sun, Better Protection in Hot Climates

Lemony Lace® Elderberry grows in full sun to part sun. In cooler northern climates, more sun helps produce the strongest golden foliage color. In warmer regions, part sun or light afternoon shade can help protect the foliage and keep the plant looking fresher through summer heat.

This shrub is adaptable to a range of soil pH and moisture levels, but it performs best in well-drained soil with steady moisture during establishment. Avoid extremely dry, harsh sites until the plant is well rooted. Mulch helps moderate soil moisture and keeps the root zone cooler during hot weather.

Easy Pruning for Shape, Size, and Fresh Growth

Lemony Lace® Elderberry can grow about 4 to 7 feet tall and wide, but it can be pruned to stay smaller. It blooms on old wood, so heavy spring pruning can reduce flowers and fruit. If flowers and berries matter to you, prune lightly after flowering.

If your main goals are golden foliage and a compact size, you can prune more aggressively when the plant is young to encourage a fuller shape. Older plants can be thinned by removing weak, damaged, or older canes. In some landscapes, Lemony Lace® can even be cut back and grown more like a colorful foliage perennial, though that approach reduces flowering and fruiting.