force the sticky seed into a crack/crevice of the bark and fingers crossed they will germinate.

I think you need to get hold of some mistletoe berries in about March, the ones around at Christmas aren't usually ripe. There are one or two specialist companies around, and they sent out instructions with the berries

It seems that for best germination results you want to harvest your berries from a similar tree ie apple to apple, birch to birch. Unfortunately I've had no success over 2 years trying to germinate from crabapple to crabapple.

However, that was after about 4 winters of waiting until February for ripe berries only to find that they had all disappeared (don't know whether to blame blackbirds or teenagers).

This year I was walking the neighbourhood after the St Judes storm and found large sections of oak and poplar limbs felled and awaiting removal, covered in unripe mistletoe. Clearly the plants were only going to die, so I appropriated a couple of carrierbags full of stems.

If vine-ripening of tomatoes works, there's a chance it may just work here, so I'll be getting sticky next week with the kids applying berries to crevices in crab and hawthorn bark - nothing ventured, nothing gained!

Also, given how sticky you do get with this task, is this the origin of the word viscous?

Many thanks to all the members who replied to my question, "How to propagate mistletoe" I've "aquired a good mass of berries, so I'll try all the diff' methods. Let you know how I come on.

Thanks Again