I hope you’re all set for Christmas and the presents are wrapped. Hopefully you can now sit back and relax.

You may be hosting family and friends for Christmas or you may be guests in which case I hope you’re pitching in and washing the sprouts. Speaking of hosts, have you ever considered who or what acts as hosts in the garden?

Our trees and hedging act as hosts to nesting birds in the spring and there are a number of trees that act as hosts to mistletoe (Viscum album) which is more noticeable now as the trees have shed their leaves.

Mistletoe grows on a range of trees but particularly likes apples and limes. It takes much of its moisture and goodness from the host tree but is also able to make some of its own food by photosynthesis much like other plants.

It’s a plant that we associate with Christmas and kissing but where does this stem from?

Well, like many of our Christmas traditions it has its roots in the pagan celebrations of the Winter Solstice so it is apt that I find myself writing this on the morning of the 21st December, our own Winter Solstice.

Many evergreen plants were considered by the pagans to have magical properties and mistletoe was seen as a symbol of fertility.

Because it remained evergreen and sometimes grew on Oak trees, which were considered sacred, it was thought to contain the life and magic of the Oak which would have already lost its leaves.

In parts of Europe mistletoe was seen as a plant representing peace and good luck and postcards embroidered with mistletoe were sent by soldiers on the front line to express their desire for peace and as a token of their love for their sweethearts.

If you would like to grow mistletoe yourself it is easy to propagate but will take several years to establish and form a sizeable clump. Ideally you should remove the sticky berries from an existing cluster of mistletoe in February or March.

If you are given some at Christmas you may be able to store some of the berries for use later but the berries at Christmas are usually not fully ripe. Choose four or five branches on your host tree and stick the seeds to the branches.

The seeds have a coating of their own natural glue. Alternatively you can propagate by cutting a small flap in the bark of a tree and placing the seed under the flap.

This is then covered with hessian to protect it from the birds.

The seeds should readily germinate but many may be eaten by the birds so it is best to sow twenty or more in the hope that several will fight off attack by our feathered friends and other bugs and make it successfully through to the following year.

You will then see small signs of growth on the tree bark but no real leaves until the second year.

As it can take five years or more for the clump to develop and produce berries of its own you will need to be patient for that Christmas kiss.

However, if you do not wish to wait for that length of time, it is possible to buy trees with mistletoe already growing on them.

Perhaps you could consider this for next year’s Christmas present and give a “Mistletoe tree”.

Bernadette Varilone

www.unique-gardens.co.uk

0118 966 6004