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Gizzus a kiss
PETER FROST prepares for the festive season
NICHE WORK IF YOU CAN GET IT: Sarah Starkey, who runs Mistletoe By Post, harvesting mistletoe on Commonwood Farm in Tenbury Wells

I HAVE always thought the mistletoe (Viscum album) was one of the most magical and mysterious of plants. I have seen huge and multitudinous bunches growing on gnarled and ancient apple trees but similar orchards with not a sign of the plant.

I’ve also seen pathetic pale bunches over the door at more Christmas office parties than you could shake a cracker at.  

Experts, face to face as well as on the media, tell me it is almost impossible to cultivate mistletoe, although I have read about making a nick in an ancient apple tree’s bark and rubbing in the seeds and pulp of a mistletoe berry. I’ve never met anyone who has managed to get mistletoe to take hold by this method.

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