Growing Mistletoe
Interested in growing mistletoe? Just for your garden, a new colony for wildlife conservation reasons or a new population to harvest and market at Christmas?
Mistletoe Matters have been involved in planting schemes and exercises for all these reasons, and can provide advice and practical help to any individual or organisation. We have also developed a Mistletoe Grow-Kit for gardeners (see below).
Our nature conservation plantings have included many in Greater London, where mistletoe is part of the local Biodiversity Plan. New colonies have been planted at many sites including Kew Gardens, Chelsea Physic Garden, Lambeth Palace, numerous parks and other public sites plus a well-known (but private!) Royal garden. Other planting projects have been undertaken across the country with the Conservation Volunteers and the Wildlife Trusts. We have also helped establish commercial colonies, particularly in areas outside mistletoe's natural growing areas. These can be quite intensive planting projects, which take several years to generate any return.
Squeeze out the pulp...
Isolate the sticky seed...
For gardeners we have developed Mistletoe Grow Kits. These were originally marketed through our Tenbury Mistletoe Enterprise partnership from 2004 to 2009, and are now improved further for our own English Mistletoe Shop. Hundreds of these kits have been sent out in recent years - to gardeners all over the UK. For details and to order one follow the links below, or visit our sister website The Mistletoe Pages for more growing information.
Grow-Your-Own Kit
Our Mistletoe Grow-Kits were developed by Jonathan Briggs, and are an improved version of the popular kits he designed for Tenbury Mistletoe from 2006-2009. Each kit contains 50 freshly-picked berries, enough for about 10 plantings, with detailed instructions, labelling material and a recording form to keep track of each planting.
The mistletoe planting season is February to April, and so the kits, with freshly picked ripe berries, are not sent out until February/March. You can order our kits direct from our sister site at englishmistletoeshop.co.uk. Please visit that site to place an order this season.
If a spring delivery seems a long way off, and you want to give a Grow-Kit at Christmas, you might want one of the English Mistletoe Shop's Grow-Kit Gift Cards. Each contains a voucher redeemable for one of the Mistletoe Grow-Kits, which are delivered in early spring. The Gift Card itself can be sent at any time of the year. To order visit englishmistletoeshop.co.uk.
What else will you need?
A tree to grow it on, as it is a hemi-parasite of tree branches and can’t grow on its own. Apple trees are mistletoe’s favourite host, but lots of other garden tree species are also suitable (there’s a list in the kit)
And you’ll need some patience, as mistletoe grows very slowly in the first 3 or 4 years. It’s well worth the wait, as once it gets established it grows quite fast, giving you plenty of kissing opportunities every Christmas!
Other information
Please note that the seeds should be planted within two weeks of receipt – so do pick a period when you’ll be able to plant them. And, last but not least, the grow-kit boxes are letter-box friendly – and will fit through most modern letter boxes.
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Grow-Your-Own Kit
Detailed Instructions (on our "Mistletoe Pages" site)