Help my sambucas racemosa Sutherland gold is dying

Help please

My sambucas looks like it is dying, the leaves from the bottom up are dying

Can anybody help

 

Welcome to Gardeners Corner Darrel. My first thought is lack of water. The conifers growing behind the Sambucus will sap every drop of water from the soil and any nutrients along with it! We've had quite a dry spell recently and that won't help. Water it well over the next couple of weeks and if it looks like it's picking up then give it a feed. The leaves already lost will drop but if the shrub survives they will be replaced.

 

I expect others will disagree with me, but I think that "Sutherland Gold" is a weak & puny cultivar, not a patch on S. racemosa aurea of old (that is very hard to find in nurseries now), and I think "Sutherland Gold" has been a product of marketing, rather than good breeding.

Yours is a good sized plant, and presumably your weather has not been significantly different to other years, so no reason it should curl its toes up?

If the soil is dry I would water it (given it plenty, and then leave it alone for a 4-7 days before giving it another heavy watering).

Any signs of any bugs infesting it?

 

I have to agree with Kristen, I have a Sambucus racemosa aurea that is waiting to be planted, it is more robust than Sutherland's gold, which in my experience needs more moisture to thrive, its not the first one I've seen struggle in dry weather, sadly.

As mentioned I would put the hose pipe on it and leave it trickling (not gushing) for a good half hour, might be worth just ligjtly forking the soil over round it before hand to help the water get to the roots.