misletoe

Hi, This is my first time of asking any question. Is it possible to plant misletoe myself, and if it is how do i do it, looking forward to an answer. from Cedric.

No-you cant plant it in the conventional sense-it is a parasite and grows in trees-you can often see mistletoe now, high up in leafless trees

To get it to grow is quite a hit and miss affair-this probably explains it better than I can

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/3345933/Mistletoe-How-to-grow.html

There was an item on the radio the other day and the Woodland Trust were talking about trying to spread mistletoe. You have to mash it up with some of your saliva  (to simulate birds digesting it) andthe rub it into cracks in the bark. I'm afraid I can;t remember which trees it prefers - I know it likes apples.

Also they did say it could take up to two years before you see any sign of genrmination as they talked about checking progress each spring.

Good luck

Hi ChrissieB i just looked at the how to grow site, the missletoe is a must to try  for the future, cheers for that Alan

Should have said  Santa Monoica sorr Alan

Alan-it was me

EDIT-You've noticed now

if you are like my late father in law,you have an old apple tree to which you place a couple of mistletoe berries into a slit in the bark and bingo you have if your lucky a bunch of kissing boughs,of course you have to squeeze the berries a little,that's how they stick to the tree.good luck.

I've had several goes at mistletoe but no luck yet. One of the problems is that those white Christmas berries aren't ripe. Even when I sent for them at the right time from an ad I saw in a garden magazine, no go. but that was one of the hottest summers for a while and they probably dried out. I haven't given up the idea.

 Mistletoe can be grown by simply squashing a berry onto a host tree, usually an apple tree but you can do this on around 200 species of tree. But be aware that mistletoe is a parasite and can damage or kill the host tree if over colonised.

I remember hearing that different strains of misletoe grow best on specific trees - i.e. if  your misletoe grew on an apple tree then the seeds should be 'planted' on an appletree.  If it came from a poplar then it will grow best on poplar.

Dove -that body-clock needs new batteries