THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Tuesday, December 20, 1994 TAG: 9412200298
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Short : 50 lines
Kiss off mistletoe this Christmas. Last winter's ice storms and a frost in late May ruined Virginia's 1994 crop, and it threatens a smoochless holiday.
``It probably will be, if people are relying on mistletoe,'' said a grinning Ezra Wertz, owner of Wertz's Country Store in the downtown Roanoke market. ``I usually tell my customers it's the best investment they can make, that little sprig of mistletoe.''
Doug Muncy, a Martinsville farmer, usually sells about $2,000 worth of the fragile, parasitic plant that grows in treetops each year. ``I probably won't make a quarter of that this year,'' he said. ``The storms just wiped it out.''
Evergreen vendor Russell Harrison said, ``There's none to get in Franklin County. Franklin, Henry County, Patrick County, Floyd County, there's just none to be found.''
But, there is hope at the end of the market: a man with an impressive stash of mistletoe. But where did he get it?
``It's a secret,'' Rurik Zuidhoek said with a look of glee in his eyes. ``Nah, I'm just kidding. I went south to North Carolina. I climbed up the trees and picked it myself.''
He sells small sprigs for a buck. His larger, hardy-looking branches with the hallmark, shiny white berries, go for a whopping $10.
``I climbed 80 feet to get that. I would've gotten more but it started raining,'' Zuidhoek said. ``I figure I deserve the $10.''
The Roanoke County Cooperative Extension office has received several calls this year from people who can't find phoradendron flavescens, a.k.a. American mistletoe.
But C.E. Stewart Jr. of Vinton, who was admiring wreaths with his wife, said the shortage of mistletoe doesn't bother him. ``I'm going to keep on kissing. We can't let no mistletoe stop that.'' ILLUSTRATION: LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
Roanoke market vendor Rurik Zuidhoek shows off a sprig of this
season's rare flora. Where did he find it? ``I went south to North
Carolina. I climbed up the trees and picked it myself.''
KEYWORDS: MISTLETOE by CNB