Not long now until the first mistletoe trading of the season and yes, the plants are looking good yet again! That’s several years in a row now. Perhaps a bit more variable this season but here are some quick snapshots (click to enlarge them) I took of mistletoe in my mother’s garden earlier today – good material, albeit a little out of reach.
And some nicely offset by holly, though only a male tree so no holly berries. It’s the best mistletoe she’s ever had in this particular apple tree (she did have a lot in another, smaller, tree a few years ago but that one succumbed, unfortunately, to a surfeit of mistletoe. If only she’d known someone who could have given some management advice. Oh wait…).
Mistletoe Diary this season will be covering the full range of mistletoe stories, especially the weirder ones. Planned content includes the a family mistletoe tradition gift box, complete with sprig of, er, plastic mistletoe, the question of whether hanging up a plastic model of a KFC chicken basket could have the same effect as mistletoe, how best to use the Yellow Pages in a mistletoe encounter, the hazards of dwarf mistletoes in woodland ecosystems and a review of birdlime – a sticky mistletoe by-product of yesteryear used to ensnare birds, kill soldiers and which features, oddly, in literature ranging from Aesop to C. Day Lewis.
And anything else which happens to come along in the next few weeks.
In the meantime, if you’re interested in mistletoe in general visit the Mistletoe Pages website and if you’re after mistletoe books, cards or grow-kits have a look at the English Mistletoe Shop website:
