You can deck your halls with boughs of holly, evergreen and mistletoe.
This "kissing plant" can be found locally throughout the hills and hollers of West Virginia. Look up and see if you can find this green plant high up in the bare treetops.
It may be a romantic plant, but it is also a parasitic plant that attaches itself to the branches of trees. Most of the time it is spread through bird droppings. Be careful, the plant and the berries can be poisonous when ingested. I would take off the berries if I had pets or little ones running about the house.
How do you get the illusive bunches of mistletoe from the tops of trees. Well, you could shoot them down.
Sometimes, my son, Andrew, likes to do that.
I didn't make a 'kissing ball,' but I did hang a sprig of it above a doorway in the house.
Everyone needs a kiss every now and then, don't you agree?
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We shoot it down from the trees in our neck of the woods too! Too bad we couldn't keep it hanging over a door all year round! Have a great weekend Janet!
I don't think mistletoe grows here up North, at least I've never heard that it does. Interesting way of getting it down from the trees, too!
I've never seen mistletoe in Texas, but everything else grows here, so I imagine it does, too.
Good for target practice :)
We've got it here. We have to shoot it down though..
I don't see as much mistletoe now as I did as a child. I wonder if this is a tradition that is dying?
I really want to find some around my house. My husband says it is any green that is growing in the tops of trees in the Winter. I've not seen the white flower on them though. Yours is beautiful!
Always enjoy reading your blog. What a great bluebird photo. Mistletoe - remember seeing it grow back home but haven't seen any here. Loved seeing your son shooting it down. That's the way it's done!!! Thanks for sharing.
Blessings to you and your this holiday season.
Barb
Woohooo, we shoot it down too!
Merry Christmas
I always put some in the entrance hall on the light fixture there. One Christmas, our pastor came and my husband was standing under the mistletoe. The pastor told him, 'I'm happy to be here, but I'm not kissing you!" :) Always fun. Thanks for reminding me.
Hi Janet,
I would like some of that kssing foliage, but none to be had in our trees, plus no shotgun to shoot it down.
I was going to make some of those cones from paper and forgot about, maybe not to late.
Nancy Jo
I do agree!
I miss those days of shooting the mistletoe out of trees.
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