Mistletoe

Making the second visit to a garden centre in a week, not Chepstow this time, I was paying for a plant and the lady at the check out, who wasn't busy, started chatting. She asked me if I wanted any mistletoe, as the was a huge mound of it stacked up nearby. I didn't want mistletoe but we had a chat anyway.


I asked her if they got it locally, and surprisingly the answer was 'No'. They get it from Brittany and Normandy. With the decline of the apple industry it has become increasingly difficult to find home-grown mistletoe.


When I lived in Mitchel Troy in Monmouth, the old chap next door had a huge growth of Mistletoe on one of his apple trees and I was very covetous of this. He explained to me that mistletoe reproduces itself with the assistance of birds, such as the mistle thrush, that eat the berries. Their droppings, which contain the seeds, then land on the tree bark and germinate. Now I don't know how accurate this is, but knowing H, who has been a gardener for some sixty years, it's probably quite accurate. The germination rate is quite low, usually only one in ten seeds become a plant. The garden centre lady verified this part and said I was lucky to have lived next door to such a knowledgeable gardener. Sadly, I no longer live next door to H and he now has Alzheimer's disease.


Hanging mistletoe was originally done to ward off evil spirits, but the Victorians used it in doorways and ceilings, when rules were relaxed enough for the socially acceptable 'mistletoe kiss'. So as you hang your mistletoe this Christmas ponder the myths and save the berries that you pick off after each kiss, because according to my garden centre source, you can also try spring planting of berries in the usual way!