Carol Klein explains why holly, ivy and mistletoe are her festive favourites
Holly, ivy and mistletoe deserve pride of place in the festivities
Three of the most important plants of our gardens, and in the wild, come especially to our attention at this time of year. Sadly for much of the rest of the year they stay towards the back of our gardening consciousness. No, I’m not talking about Christmas trees but about holly, ivy and mistletoe.
Writing anything about Christmas, it’s difficult not to mention holly, ivy and mistletoe, but if you’re writing about gardening it’s impossible not to give them pride of place. We take it for granted that they’re part of the festivities yet the importance and symbolism of these three plants to our society goes back long before the celebration of Christmas.
Holly is a magic tree, long revered as the protector and the bringer of hope. Though holly boughs were brought indoors to decorate homes at the turning of the year, long before Christmas was celebrated in our islands, to cut down a holly tree to the ground was to invite bad luck.
The holly tree was often used as signposts, reference points. When we drive from Glebe Cottage to South Molton, our closest town, we see a succession of holly trees like sentinels standing guard along the road. This year they’re bearing a good crop of red berries. Hollies not only directed and protected human beings, but offered (and still do) protection to sapling trees, which in many cases outgrow their former guardians.
My favourite holly tree, a big, old Ilex aquifolium, stands at the edge of a lane close to home. Very often as we open the gate and step down into the lane we surprise gangs of fieldfares or redwings feasting after their long flight from Scandinavia. On other days it’s just the local blackbirds and thrushes tucking in. Further up the lane several oaks stand in the bank. Each one is adorned with ivy and at this time of year both ivy flowers and berries are out in full force. For wildlife they’re two of the most important plants in our hedgerows and gardens.
Only when ivy starts to climb and develop a woody trunk does it begin to flower. While it’s creeping around on the ground there are no flowers, though it does make wonderful cover for insects and small mammals. Its elaborate flower head is a masterpiece in symmetry and each of the flowers in the green and gold explosion is loaded with nectar. By now it’s loaded with black berries and in their turn these are crucially important for birds. They mature over a long time so the larder goes on providing food for months. Simultaneously holly provides an additional diet and the sight of them together with their dark, glossy leaves and loaded with berries is to be relished.
The third member of the Yuletide trio is mistletoe. Many Celtic and Druidic rituals around the turning of the year involved mistletoe. It was thought to bring fertility, give protection against evil spirits and heal disease and illness. It signified peace, and myth had it that if enemies should meet in a wood underneath the mistletoe, they would lay down their arms and embrace one another. Mistletoe is a fascinating plant, it has no roots in the usual sense and is a parasite, depending for nutrients on the host on which it grows.
Among all the commercial madness of Christmas, it does us good to remind ourselves of what these three exceptional plants have meant and can continue to mean.
'Ivy's elaborate flower head is a masterpiece in symmetry and each of the flowers in the green and gold explosion is loaded with nectar'