Auction offers top of the Christmas crop - with video

But for many the whims of nature in the run-up to Christmas are crucial – which was never more in evidence than at Burford House Garden Stores, as both buyers and sellers congregated on the edge of Tenbury Wells for the annual auctions of mistletoe, holly and other decorative plants.

The auctions have taken place in one location or another around Tenbury Wells for decades, and are so important to the town that it now holds its own "mistletoe festival", which took place last weekend.

Auctioneer Nick Champion oversees the auctions, the first of which was held last week with 2,247 wreaths, 650 lots of holly and mistletoe and 406 trees on sale.

He said there had been a good crop this year and trade was very fast on all types, much stronger than in 2015.

"It was very good last week, we had record prices," he said, adding the second of the three sales over three weeks was often busier.

He said holly had been a little more scarce than usual, pushing prices up.

"The mistletoe is better quality again. We haven't got as much decorated holly wreaths but we have got a lot of basic fir wreaths for people to decorate themselves."

Produce sold at Tenbury can make its way out all over the country, and even the world with wreaths and mistletoe being shipped off the Ireland and Scotland and even on globe-trotting cruise ships in the past.

But most on site yesterday were from closer to home. Husband and wife Glyn and Jen Davies had come from across the border in Montgomery where Jen runs florist The Flower House.

Glyn, 72, a farmer most of his working life, said: "We've been coming down here for 30-something years, ever since Jen has had the shop.

"The auctions started out in Tenbury, it then went out to Little Hereford, then the other sie of Tenbury and for the past few years its been here. We get all sorts of weather down here.

"We always come to the second sale. We try and buy quite a few lots and its chiefly wreaths we're interested in, though we buy mistletoe and holly too.

"We always go for the better quality ones, we've got our eyes on a few – but of course everyone has got their eyes on the same ones. It's a bit of a job because there are only so many good ones and once they're gone they're gone."

He said some people came to pick up bargain wreaths that may not be high enough quality to be sold in a shop, however.

"I suppose it's what you want it for. In the middle of a city a wreath might look beautiful when it wouldn't look like much round here."

Patrick Bernard, a market trader from Worcester, said: "We're here for wreaths but we've heard they're a bit thin on the ground.

"There was plenty of holly this year, but maybe the birds have started to eat the berries. There are a lot of these Scandanavian birds like redwings about – I've got an orchard and they get in there, thousands of them, and eat the fallen apples.

"So we're here to buy wreaths but we're not sure we're going to get any, I marvel at some of the prices they sell them at."

Others had come along for personal rather than business reasons. Andrew Clee, 70, from Leominster, was there with his 14-year-old grandson – also called Andrew Clee. Mr Clee senior said: "We're here to get eight wreaths. We get them for our family's graves. We've been coming along for about five years."

Not everyone was there to buy, however, as some had simply come along out of curiosity. Richard and Margaret Jolly had come down the A49 from Bayston Hill, near Shrewsbury, after years of hearing about the auctions.

Richard, 68, a retired local government worker, said: "It's something quite unusual, something unique to the area.

"I don't think we're going to buy anything as you need to get a number of things in a lot and it would be too much for the house, I think."

Margaret, 63, said: "We've just come along to have a look, because we've seen it on the TV before. We've known it's been going for years but we've never been.

"It's something different, it's Christmas and it's a morning out."

The final mistletoe auction is on Tuesday.