Jonathan Briggs reports on mistletoe matters
There’s a Black Friday sale on at the English Mistletoe Shop for the next few days, ending at midnight on Sunday 1st December. 15% off Mistletoe Grow-Kits and Grow-Kit Gift Cards. Only on the main English Mistletoe Shop site at englishmistletoeshop.co.uk
A good turn out of both people and mistletoe lots for today’s mistletoe auction at Tenbury Wells. Mistletoe looking good, lots of berries, again, though perhaps not quite as plump as some previous years. A few lots had yellower leaves – which won’t fetch as good a price as the greener stuff. But there were masses of nice green stuff too. Some lively bidding for lovely mistletoe! Only two auctions this year – the second […]
(the first of some blogs about mistletoe-themed plants) The distinctive geometric branching of Viscum album, the classic mistletoe of legend, is one of its most distinguishing features. Each branch bifurcates once a year, creating an intricate pattern. Not all mistletoes have this property – for example the Phoradendron species used at Christmas in the US don’t – they look really quite ordinary, not like the European plant at all. But a few other plants do […]
Or just a generic Christmassy-themed retail-fest? The phrase Mistletoe Market is fairly uncommon here in the UK – the mistletoe auctions at Tenbury Wells are sometimes called this, but not often. We also have a few Mistletoe Fairs – some more mistletoey than others (of which more in another post soon) – but we have few events formally called a Mistletoe Market. But cross the atlantic and the US is brimming with ‘mistletoe markets’, some […]
The December issue of BBC Countryfile magazine is now out – and there’s a 6-page feature on mistletoe and its traditions. Nicely-written. Though perhaps, as the author, I shouldn’t say that. There’s a screenshot of a couple of pages below – but you’ll have to buy it to read it. Mistletoe Information: for general mistletoe info visit the Mistletoe Pages website. And for mistletoe books, cards or kits to grow your own mistletoe visit the English Mistletoe Shop […]
My recent post about the new mistletoe-eating bird in Borneo reminded me of several other exotic (to us in Britain) mistletoe stories. One particular story from last year came to mind – a project in New Zealand where local residents were being given mistletoe seeds in an effort to re-establish local mistletoe species. The project, based in Christchurch, involved the collection of seeds by local ecologists and then the doling out of 20 seeds each […]
Some pictures of mistletoe in Gloucestershire Orchard Trust‘s orchards at Longney, near Gloucester, taken this afternoon. The berries, as you can see, are beginning to whiten up now – still very opaque and with a hint of green, but it won’t be long now until we get the full white berry effect. Most pics are from the apple trees, some still bearing apples, but the last few are of mistletoe in the riverside poplar on […]
