What to do in the garden this month

• Plant bare root roses in well-prepared soil.  
• Harvest holly with berries for making Christmas decorations; stand them in a        bucket of water until you are ready to use them.
• Improve soil by incorporating compost.
•  Lift and divide large clumps of rhubarb.
• Take hardwood cuttings from healthy fruit bushes, including currants and            gooseberries.
• Transplant shrubs and conifers that have outgrown their position.
• Ornamental grasses and bamboos can be cut back this month.
• Raise patio containers onto feet or bricks to avoid them sitting in the wet during winter.
• Leave the faded flower heads on your hydrangeas until the spring as they provide frost protection to the swelling buds further down the stems.
• Protect your Poinsettias from cold draughts and allow them to dry out slightly       between waterings to make them last for the whole Christmas period.
• Plant out indoor grown forced hyacinth bulbs in garden beds and borders after    Christmas flowering is over. They will flower again next year. 
• Wash and disinfect bird feeders and bird tables. Clean out bird baths too.
• Don’t forget to protect your outdoor taps and pipes with insulating foam.

Christmas greenery, straight from the garden

What could be more lovely than stepping out on a cold and frosty morning to pick home-grown Christmas greenery, straight from the garden? Graham Rice offers some expert plant suggestions.

It used to be that the only option for holiday greenery in the home was the Christmas tree, along with holly and ivy. Now everything’s changed, and very definitely for the better.

Today an increasing range of attractive evergreen alternatives for decorative foliage is available to use in wreaths, in table decorations and in long-lasting seasonal arrangements. And the great thing about so many of these alternatives is that you can grow them yourself at home. Here are ten options.

Numbers at the end of each entry refer to plant height and RHS hardiness rating.

Source: https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/articles/graham-rice/shrubs-and-climbers/grow-your-own-christmas-greenery

Did you know?

Mistletoe

The word ‘mistletoe’ derives from the Germanic form ‘mistle’, adding the Old English word tān (twig). Mistletoe is the common name for most obligate hemi-parasitic plants which successfully parasitise more than 200 tree and shrub species. They attach to and penetrate the branches of a tree or shrub by a structure called the haustorium, through which they absorb water and nutrients from the host plant. Historically mistletoe (or Viscum album) is thought to have had magical powers, providing protection against thunder, lightning and other evils as well as curing illnesses and guaranteeing good health.

The Romans would have us believe that when Jupiter descended from Heaven, he took up residence in a mistletoe bush. Medea, the sorceress in Greek mythology, gathered up the plants with a brass hook and used the berries (which are only found on the female plant) to make magic potions, and when Aeneas wanted to visit his dead father in Hades, he used the golden mistletoe bough to charm his way across the Styx.
The Druids also placed faith in its powers, and organised elaborate ceremonies to collect it on the fifth day of the first new moon of the year. Berries were then turned into potions which were believed to prevent sterility. Fertility is a common theme in mistletoe legend and clearly carries over into our present-day customs!

Mistletoe grows in the branches of trees such as hawthorn, poplar and lime, although in the UK the most common hosts are cultivated apple trees.

Despite growing on trees, mistletoe is not generally found in a woodland setting, preferring hosts in open situations with plenty of light. You’re more likely to see it in gardens, orchards, parkland and even churchyards. This means that mistletoe would have been less abundant in ancient times when woodland was more typical.

It’s commonly found in Wales, the West Midlands and the South of England, with particularly large populations in Gwent, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Gloucestershire and Somerset. It was once thought that this clustering was due to the number of apple orchards in these regions, but this has been proved incorrect as orchards are found in locations where mistletoe is absent.

Mistletoe is widely scattered elsewhere in England and Wales, but is rarely seen in eastern and northern England and Scotland.

Jonathan Briggs has written A Little Book about Mistletoe which explains what mistletoe is, and why it has such an unusual place in tradition, myth and legend, especially at Christmas. There is lots more intriguing information about mistletoe at: http://mistletoe.org.uk/homewp/index.php/traditions/christmas-new-year/

References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistletoe

https://www.rhs.org.uk/education-learning/blogs/libraries/december-2014/miraculous-mistletoe

Mistletoe and holly by Sophia Prior

Grown your own mistletoe by Nick Wheeldon

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/blog/2018/12/where-does-mistletoe-grow/

At Christmas time we sing about ‘the holly and the ivy’ but what do you know about them? Here are a few interesting facts:

Ivy (its official name is ‘Hedera helix’) is a woody, evergreen climber that grows up walls, fences and trees using tiny roots to cling to walls and buildings; in woods it can also carpet the ground. It has glossy, green leaves. It is a valuable plant for insects filling up on nectar before hibernating and for many birds, such as blackbirds and thrushes. Ivy berries ripen in winter, when most other berries have already been eaten.

It grows in any soil and tolerates both deep shade and full sun. However, only shoots in the sun produce flowers. It is poisonous to humans.

Holly (its official name is ‘Ilex aquifolium’) is an excellent evergreen shrub for a wildlife garden. It has tough, prickly, glossy, dark green leaves and can grow into a relatively tall tree.

Male and female flowers are on separate shrubs; for a female shrub to produce berries, it must be pollinated by a male growing nearby. Holly appears frequently in folklore and is commonly associated with Christmas.

It grows in any soil and copes well with full sun or shade.

Some of the creatures that benefit from the Holly tree:

• Bees and bumblebees collect its nectar and pollen.
• Caterpillars of the holly blue butterfly eat its buds and flowers.
• Many birds, such as thrushes, robins, dunnocks, finches and goldcrests, use it for nesting as it provides excellent protection.
• Blackbirds, fieldfares, redwings, mistle and song thrushes, among others, eat the berries.
• Hedgehogs, small mammals, toads and slow worms hibernate in the deep leaf litter that builds up beneath it.

Gardens are full of wildlife at all times of the year, even when the weather is cold. Keep an eye on your garden this winter, and see if you can spot any wildlife with this handy worksheet from the Wildlife Trust.

https://www.atouchofthewild.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Winter-Garden-Wildlife-Spotter.png

Merry Christmas!