Establish some mistletoe

24th December 2020

Mistletoe is a hemiparasite, which has green leaves to photosynthesize but also draws some nutrients from the broad leaved trees like poplar or apple in which it grows.The RHS suggests that there's no point trying to establish mistletoe from the berries which you may buy at Christmas, as they may be underripe - however unless you already have mistletoe growing, you are unlikely to be able to find berries any later in the spring! If you want to try it, find a suitable mature tree and extract the seeds from the sticky pulp, then rub them into a crevice in the bark (or make a nick and insert the seeds). Only about a tenth of seeds are fertile, and you need male and female plants to produce berries, so be generous with your seeds.