Good news for Christmas lovebirds: The mistletoe is well-stocked this year.
In fact, reports of a shortage of mistletoe, a parasitic plant that grows on trees and shrubs, may have been overblown. These reports began two years ago when severe drought devastated the crop at Tiemann's Mistletoe, a major grower in Priddy, Texas.
"It just looked like crap—half-dead and didn't look good," said Robert Tiemann, co-owner. "Since it's a wild harvested plant, there's really nothing you can do to help it along."
Due to the drought, Tiemann halted production at his family's business, which has been in operation since the mid-1950s. Tiemann said the available crop at the time wasn't good enough "to do a commercial business."
While he would not give exact sales figures, Tiemann said, "I've always said that if you bought mistletoe from a store, it probably came from us."
(Read more: Still need a Christmas tree? Don't wait)
Although Tiemann's closure generated widespread worry about the crop, Brion Domman, owner of Texas-based MistletoeUS, insists he saw "very little dro