auctions , berries , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Mistletoe , Mistletoe Day , social history , Tenbury Wells

Mistletoe Season 2025/6

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

It’s mistletoe time, yet again. And this year the berries have been ripening particularly early, some whitening up a month ago in October – which is very early indeed, and somewhat disconcerting! But they’re looking good now, many fully translucent and already glowing in the winter sun (when it actually shines). Mistletoe Diary is reporting on various matters this year, but here, to start with, are few of the usual event announcements: Mistletoe Auctions at […]

auctions , berries , Biodiversity , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Food and Drink , insects , Mistletoe , Orchard , Science

Invasive fruit-flies overwinter in mistletoe, with implications for fruit…

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

The dependent insect fauna of our mistletoe, Viscum album, gradually changes with time. The mistletoe-dependent weevil Ixapion variegatum was unknown in Britain until 2000, and the mistletoe sap-sucker Hypseloecus visci unknown here until 2003.  And there many other insects that use mistletoe, as well as those specialists.  These broader species also change with time and one, an invasive species of fruitfly, has come in for special attention recently.  Studies have shown how widespread it now […]

auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Media , Mistletoe , music , social history , Tenbury Wells

Mistletoe Songs #1

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

Following the recent media nonsense speculating that mistletoe traditions are on the wane, I thought about documenting various evidence to the contrary – not least the constant presence of mistletoe in book titles (lots of mistletoe-themed murder mysteries (!) and romances, in equal measure) , TV and film titles/themes (romance again, and, bizarrely, murder mysteries again) and in seasonal songs (romance only, I’ve not spotted any mistletoe murder songs yet). The whole gamut of that […]

auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , MistleGO , Mistletoe , social history , surveying mistletoe , Tenbury Wells

Loadsa mistletoe sales

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

Yesterday I looked up how many people were selling mistletoe in the UK via Facebook Marketplace – and found that there were dozens and dozens of them.  Some selling just a small amount, others with a production line of bundles tied with ribbon and a few advertising whole treefuls of mistletoe to anyone willing to come and gather it.  The screen shots above and below show just a small sample. I was a little astonished.  […]

auctions , Biodiversity , Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Food and Drink , Gardening , Mistletoe , Mistletoe Day , Orchard , Religion , social history , Tenbury Wells

Mistletoe in Parliament

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

A recent query (in connection with this) about how we got Parliament’s approval for National Mistletoe Day in 2005, and a subsequent search for the relevant references, got me looking at mistletoe in parliament in general.  Does it get mentioned often?  And in what sort of context? The answer to ‘how often’ is ‘not very’.  But the answer to type of context is ‘very variable’ as a search through Hansard, Parliament’s formal record (and allied […]

auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Mistletoe , Religion , Science , social history , stupidity , Tenbury Wells

The silly season is upon us – apparently “wokery” could end mistletoe kisses. What a load of tosh.

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

There’s a story doing the rounds today that “wokery could put an end to kissing under the mistletoe at Christmas”.  The comment is attributed to Nick Champion, the mistletoe auctioneer at Tenbury Wells*. He said, apparently, in the context of mistletoe sales not being as good as they once were, that this was due in part to that fact “workers used to kiss under the mistletoe at Christmas parties, but with all the wokery nowadays […]

auctions , Biodiversity , Blogroll , Current Affairs , druids , Gardening , Media , Science , social history

Mistletoe Season 2024/25

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

A belated start to the diary this year!  A few snippets of info and dates for now, more soon: Dates This year’s Tenbury Mistletoe Festival (and National Mistletoe Day) will be on Saturday 7th December. Details still to be confirmed, for updates see https://www.tenburymistletoe.org/  One definite fixture is the druid mistletoe ceremony at 3.00pm on the Burgage.  This year’s Tenbury Mistletoe Auctions will be on Tuesday 26th November and Tuesday 3rd December at Burford House Garden Centre, Burford, Tenbury […]

auctions , berries , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Mistletoe

Mistletoe selling well, in week 2

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

A quick update to last week’s comments about relatively few mistletoe lots at the Tenbury Wells auctions. Much better this week, as expected, with more many more lots and, to quote Nick Champion (the auctioneer) “mistletoe was more plentiful and still met the best trade seen for years”. So everything’s fine – no need to worry about the mistletoe trade! Meanwhile there’s a lot of attention being paid to the amount and spread of mistletoe […]

auctions , Blogroll , Current Affairs , Mistletoe , social history , Tenbury Wells

Missing mistletoe at Tenbury Auctions

by: Jonathan BriggsPosted on:

The first of the seasonal mistletoe auctions at Tenbury Wells was held on Tuesday this week (second one is next Tuesday, 28th Nov). It featured fewer mistletoe lots than I’ve ever seen at these auctions. I’ve been attending these annually for over 30 years, so it was a surprise, actually quite a shock. Many many holly lots, but very little mistletoe. It’s not completely clear why so little was there. One partial explanation may be […]