There are dozens, possibly hundreds, of novels with mistletoe in the title, though they are, mostly, romantic fiction and I tend to ignore those. But I was reminded, recently, of P.D.James’ The Mistletoe Murder (published in The Spectator in 1991 and in anthology The Mistletoe Murder and Other Stories in 2016) and realised I couldn’t remember the plot, particularly the mistletoe bit, assuming there is one. So I re-read it yesterday and re-found, to my […]
berries , Current Affairs , Mistletoe , social history
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Mistletoe sales
Nick Champion’s reports of this season’s mistletoe auctions are now available. As usual, these don’t give much detail, so don’t get excited: First auction, 23rd November 2021 “The mistletoe was of better quality [than the holly] and met a solid demand.” 1st Quality Mistletoe fetched up to £3.50 per kg with an average of £2.50 per kg 2nd Quality Mistletoe fetched up to £1.50 per kg with an average of £1.00 per kg Second auction, […]
berries , Current Affairs , social history
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Happy National Mistletoe Day!
As all mistletoe enthusiasts should know, today, 1st December, is National Mistletoe Day, first announced way back in 2005. That was when it was put forward, after representations by myself and other members of the original Tenbury English Mistletoe Enterprise team, in an Early Day Motion in the UK Parliament. It was never taken any further than that at parliamentary level, so perhaps has no formal status. But no-one actually objected, so that was good […]
berries , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Gardening , Media , Mistletoe , social history
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Mistletoe Auction Time
The first Mistletoe Auction of the year takes place tomorrow morning, which to many means the proper start of the mistletoe season. The auctions are run by Nick Champion and are held at at Burford House Garden Centre, Burford, Tenbury Wells, WR15 8HQ. Details on Nick’s website nickchampion.co.uk but shortcut for buyers is nickchampion.co.uk/site/assets/files/1015/buyers_information_2021.pdf and for sellers (too late for tomorrow now but there’s another next week!) is nickchampion.co.uk/site/assets/files/1015/sellers_information_2021.pdf. The berries are already nice and […]
berries , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Gardening , Media , Mistletoe , social history
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It’ll be mistletoe time again soon
With just a few days until October, we’re yet again at the start of the mistletoe season. So it is perhaps time for a quick review of how things are looking this time round: As is fairly usual these days, there’s a reasonable crop of berries forming, so it could be another good year for quality mistletoe. This seems to be the norm, and indeed there is research that suggests berry numbers per branch don’t, […]
berries , Blogroll , Gardening , Mistletoe , Other parasites
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A tale of two mistletoes
There’s a new mistletoe species here at Mistletoe Towers, all the way from Africa originally. Though this particular set of seeds came from, er, Malvern. It is Viscum minimum, related to our familiar Viscum album, but, as the name suggests, a much reduced plant. Tiny actually. I haven’t ever grown it before, though have seen several specimens grown indoors. For it isn’t an outdoor species, not here in Europe, as its hosts are tropical succulents. […]
berries , Current Affairs , druids , Food and Drink , Gardening , Media , Mistletoe , Orchard , social history
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Mistletoe and Orchards on ITV today
Plenty of mistletoe mentions on ITV this morning – all within the 2 hour show Love Your Weekend with Alan Titchmarsh (on ITV Hub here). Helped along a bit by Sir Cliff ‘Mistletoe and Wine‘ Richard being the main guest. Christmas swag-making featured about 30 minutes in – with plenty of mistletoe incorporated into a very long decoration. Some good mentions of how sticky the berries are, and their need for light when germinating, but […]
berries , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Mistletoe , Orchard , social history
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The Mistletoe Boats
Going through old trading accounts of mistletoe ( as I am today, compiling some figures for a research paper) I’m often surprised at the attention given to mistletoe imports, once acknowledged to be the main source of Christmas mistletoe in Britain. Yes we do grow our own, and do still cut and sell our own, but there was once and probably still is a flourishing trade in imports, mainly from France. Newspaper coverage of these […]
berries , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Media , Mistletoe , social history
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Another berry good year
Loads of berries, again, on the mistletoe this year. Which would, normally, mean lots of harvesting, sales and, of course, use of mistletoe. But we have two problems this season, already mentioned in recent posts, both caused by the Covid pandemic. Firstly fewer mistletoe sales – the Tenbury Wells Auctions are cancelled. And secondly social distancing – how can you kiss under mistletoe when you can’t get closer than 2 metres and wearing a mask? […]
berries , birds , Current Affairs , Gardening , maths , Mistletoe , Science
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Mistletoe in May, and Maths (and pandemics)
May Day! Summer will be here soon. And mistletoe is doing fine, just keeping on growing. My first picture here is, literally, mistletoe in May – a small mistletoe growth growing low on a May (Hawthorn) tree in full blossom. Taken in late April actually – on the banks of the Severn near Framilode earlier this week. Hawthorn/May is one of mistletoe’s favourite hosts, though the growths are often rather small and mis-formed compared to […]