First Auction, usual press confusion

The first Mistletoe and Holly Auction of 2005 was held today - in the usual place in Tenbury. But this site is still due to be developed - so this really might be the last year here.

Well-attended, lots of well-berried mistletoe - the holly doesn't look so good - not many berries this year. And Christmas tress seemed to be in short supply - but is a bit early. Next week (6th December) will probably see a lot more stock.


Usual crowds - and many of the usual buyers - familar vans from nurseries and agrden centres from across the country. This really is an institution. This year the sales have been organised by Nick Champion, formerly of Brightwells, the auctioneers who sold up last year.



But there's lots of confusion in the media. They confuse the TEME mistletoe initiatives - which have resulted in the Mistletoe Festival, Mistletoe Day and online mistletoe sales - with the auction sales. So we get reports of TEME 'organising the auctions' (sorry Nick - we know they're all yours really).

In today's Daily Express, a ridiculously inaccurate report about TEME's online sales - reputed to be worth tens of thousands of pounds and on sale at £1 per bunch. If only! The Express modestly calls itself the "greatest newpaper" - in which case I suggest it dismisses the reporter responsible - 'cos what he reported was entirely made-up, not news. And readily corrected by some phone calls and a glance at the website. Must have been too busy to research it. But it is nice to be reminded about why I don't buy the Express.

Talking of the meja, Monty Don was present filming for a story about a mistletoe grower. But unaware of the many mistletoe initiatives in Tenbury this week. A could-do-better there as well then (loyal mistletoe blog readers may recall Monty's TV coverage of the market last year, which totally missed the key story about the threatened market closure ' cos it was recorded 12 months before).

Perhaps I should stop worrying about the media and just get on with preparing for the mistletoe events from Thursday...