I definitely agree! Fresh and sticky is best! So sticky it turns your fingertips brown. Then you know you’ve got good resin. Not sure, though, whether black buds are necessarily old. I am only familiar with what grows in my area. I do know that the older buds get dry. It is usually pretty easy to tell what is new. Good comment. Thanks.

Generally black buds are older and not so sticky, usually from something that has dropped 2 or 3 years before the fresher the better is what I’ve been told.

Awesome! January & February are perfect times to collect the buds – they are particularly sticky right now! If you are on Facebook, check out the recent harvest by Skeeter Pilarski (Friends of the Trees Society). So fun to get outdoors with the kids and learn about a tree that offers us so much! So many things you can do with the buds. One of my favorite medicinals. Thanks for reading & taking the time to comment! Have fun!

You made me go out and look! Haha! Perhaps you have the “black cottonwood” variety? Ours is already leafed out – but there are some broken branches on the ground, and they have dark amber buds. I like to pick them off broken branches after a winter storm, when the buds have begun to swell and are sticky with resin (which can be almost black!). At this point, they are rather dry on the branches, but to my understanding, they are still good – and black cottonwoods also make very good medicine. Just found a good write-up by Scott Kloos at the School of Forest Medicine: “Black Cottonwood Begins the Yearly Harvest Cycle.” Hope that helps!

Well, if I were to get technical about it, the “Balm of Gilead” mentioned in the Bible and that was a precious gift from the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon is something totally different, but this is our Northwest version, which has also been used for centuries. I have been putting it on my hands and feet lately and it truly is amazing stuff. I am thinking it would also be nice mixed with a little calendula oil. And I think you have Arnica on your side of the mountains, no? That would be nice for arthritis.