This year I am going to sow my own mistletoe

[merryb]

I haven't seen mistletoe growing locally here in Portsmouth uk. Local apple orchards seem to be very neat and the trees manicured and hung out on wires. But I can remember seeing mistletoe growing from gnarled apple trees in orchards This Yule I have decided to grow my own mistletoe. My apple tree on my plot is a little spindly still but there is a lovely mature tree on my friends plot and we are going to try to grow some there.

It takes four years from smearing the squashed berries on the branch for it to mature and produce berries. As mistloe is partially parasitic we will only grow one or two bunches on the tree. I have read that mistletoe can be grown on Rowan, Ash oak, crab apple...
We associate mistletoe with peace and love and fertility, therefore, I was amused to read that its' anglo saxon name literally means" dung on a twig" which is what the birds who eat the berries, but cannot digest the hard seed deposit on the branches of trees. This is the mistletoes method of distrubting its seeds.

Hopefully we will be sucessful we will hower just squash the seeds on the branch. We wont know until spring 2012 if the seeds have germinated.

With blessings and joy for the new year

Merryb
.

[wyeuro]

you'll have to use all your bardic resources to make like a bird, so the tree will think nature did it. only joking, of course. who knows, maybe the tree will nourish her twiggy little foster child the more proudly for knowing it was sown by a druid. many blessings on your project. may good magic come of it!
wyverne /|\

[matodemi]

Good luck and blessings
(I have read one should protect the seeds somehow to prevent birds from getting at them....)

[merryb]

Thank for your good wishes for my mistletoe project wyeuro and matodemi. thanks for the reminder about covering the seeds I have hjeard that the seeds need to be covered to prevent they birds from eating the seeds and replanting them somewhere else but had not recalled it until the nudge from you matodemi.

blessings
Merryb

[White Star]

Good luck. I read in a gardening mag that it is not an easy thing to do. I hope it goes well.

Blessings

[Bruane]

If I may guess is it the viscus album aka European mistletoe, or the American. I am curiously interested as the European variety is what I use in my tea.

I would like to cultivate my own and wildcraft it for ritual and holistic use.

[Reyna]

Where did you get the seeds? I would love to do this-I'm surrounded by huge old oaks (Garry Oak: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon_oak) but I've never seen mistletoe in them, though I've seen ads on craigslist for people who wildcraft mistletoe for Christmas (so I have to assume there are plants and seeds out there).

[Selene]

@Reyna,
In many areas (ours, for example) the stuff is pretty common, so I expect people who sell it just harvest it from a well-infested tree. There's one tree along the street near where I used to work that every year is just full of it, so at Alban Arthan I grab a friend with a ladder (hi, owl! ) and we go out and gather a bushel or so of the female plants (the ones with the berries) to supply our grove for our ceremony, the local Unitarian church for their Solstice ceremony, and all our friends who decorate their houses.

Here's some interesting information about mistletoe in North America: http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/special/mistletoe/. If you google mistletoe plants for sale, you'll find some, and if you get plants with berries, you'll have the seeds. Be sure to order the species that grows in your area of the country if you want to try to propagate it.

@merryb,
Good luck with your project! I hope you have lots of success!

[Bruane]

I too would be greatly interested in purchasing or acquiring the whole European species.

As it is not common here in North America where I reside. It is the berries that are of most interest to me, and in the past have been lucky to have had some.

They were used along with mistletoe tincture in my personal ritual libation, and holistic tea.