i've seen some bottle trees around town ... the carrboro farmer's market has some for sale - the "trees" are made of
rebar. i just thought it was an artsy kinda thing that caught on ... am glad you shared the "catching bad spirits" story :)

marsha

Another story I'd read while researching bottle trees is more practical. It said that when people didn't have running water inside the house they washed dishes out in the yard in a kettle. They simply hung their pots, pans, jars and bottles on a near-by tree to air dry. Back then you didn't throw away anything so jars and bottles were kept and much of the time they hung on the tree until needed.

I think the story about the "spirits" had some kind of slave/African origin.

I 'did' one this past spring...on a deceased dogwood. Then I planted hyacinth bean. Really coool lookin' now!

Interesting story Rolfton, I'll bet it would look really cool with all of the colorful bottles you can get these days. I've never seen one before, but I might give one a try. (Not for the bad spirits-I rebuke them!)

Did someone say bottle tree?
{{gwi:583030}}
My SO planted the cedar tree and I'm still in the process of finding more different color bottles. I've got a long way to make it full. I'm growing a silver lace vine on it but may do a clematis instead.

I love bottle trees. We are new in this neighborhood and our neighbors had decided to put their house on the market. I asked her if she'd like me to wait until their house sold before I "planted" the bottle tree. ;) This is an Ornamental Grass bed in progress. The small plants around the "tree" are Salvias in bright blues...S. guaraniticas. I'm thinking of edging the bed in Lithodora or Veronica 'Georgia Blue'.

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In the film, "Ray," a beautiful bottle tree is depicted in the early boyhood scenes at the sharecroppers' village. I assumed they were used almost like a scarecrow. I wonder if they would do anything for snakes...I've heard that vibration keeps them moving.

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hoookay- guess that was an erroneous post above
.
anyhoo, we have a bottle tree. it's the rebar type & hubby made it.
{{gwi:560126}}

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:560126}}

Here is a bottle tree at a Holly Hill day lilly farm in NC.

Here is a link that might be useful: Holly Hill Daylilly Farm

Here's my bottle tree. I've planted seeds for 'Heavenly Blue' morning glory under it this year and have a good stand of Salvia uliginosa on the opposide side this year.

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oops, I didn't realize this was an old thread...I've already posted!

Pam

That's ok! It is a fun thread isn't it? Mary

Hi Carolina Friends!

Haven't visited here in a long while.
Here's my two cents on the subject:
The Bottle tree is said to have originated from the Cherokee and picked up by the slaves. I have an old book about the early Cherokee and that was one of the cultural things mentioned in it from the old days before whitemen came.
The Cherokee hung shiny things (later glass bottles) on a dead tree to beckon good spirits into the village and frighten away the bad ones. It could be a very important tool for a tribal shaman, as it was the evil spirits that made people sick and caused bad things to happen. If children disappeared or died, it was evil spirits that snatched them or killed them. Good spirits had to be enticed to do good things for the "people" and the colourful, tinkling glass did just that.
When slavery was in full swing in America, many of the "five civilized tribes" had slaves to work their land, too.
(The famous Uncle Remus stories about Briar Rabbit and Briar Fox are straight from the old Cherokee myths about animals and plants and the origin of man). The slaves picked up the cultures, traditions and religious beliefs of their slave owners, whites and Indians alike, and blended those in with their own African cultures and beliefs.
So was born the bottle tree out of this mingling of cultures
That's how I understand it, anyway.
BTW, in the movie "Ray" , the bottles were tied to the dead tree so that when the wind blew they tinkled together. That is the Cherokee way - my way. The tinkling sound of the glass frightens evil spirits from the village and keeps them away, but it attracts good ones into the village as they are delighted by the bright colours and happy sounds. Like windchimes, they bring peace and prosperity into your presence (home), much as the Oriental cultures believe.

~Annie

Wow! I have been drinking my wine this winter as fast a possible, planning my bottle tree for a summer's project. However, the tree I was going to put them on has dead limbs a little too "fat" for the bottle necks. Do you whittle them down or cut the bottle necks? Or just attach with some heavy wire? The dead tree is on the edge of the woods, just standing there, begging to be decorated. Never thought in my youth that I would consider anything so "tacky," but this getting old and being free to do whatever has great advantages. Please share advice and show more photos of your "trees." Yard art as its finest.

I think it would be cool to stick some bottles on the ends of branches and hang smaller ones from cord to dangle and tinkle in the breeze. Maybe drill holes in pieces of coloured glass and broken pottery or china to dangle underneath the bottles on the branches, like a windchime. Ya...I like that! Glad I thought of it!

The one I HAD created a few years ago was taken down before a bad storm to prevent the bottles from getting broken. Some of my bottles are very old. I never put them back up.

I am looking for just the right tree. When I get it back up, I will take some pics to share.

Bottle trees are not tacky. They are a creative part of our Americana Art History.

~Annie

Annie - That's an interesting story. Just curious, are you Cherokee? I have Cherokee ancestors, but not enough to qualify for tribal membership.
Dana

Yes,
I am Cherokee.
The Cherokee tribe doesn't have a regulation on HOW MUCH Cherokee blood runs in your veins. If you have 1/500 th, you are Cherokee!
My family refused to enroll. They were Carolina (Eastern) Cherokee, meaning they never enrolled. They originally came from N. Carolina. Later removed to West Virginia. When the government issued the eviction notice to all the tribes where gold was found, my family just sold their lands to the white side of the family and the entire clan packed up and moved to Illinois. Some of the family stayed in West Virginia and their descendants still live on our old family land. The old family cemetery is there, way up in the hills. From there they moved to Missouri and then Iowa. Eventually my family ended up in California by the 1880s. (There is a large tribal organizationp of Cherokee now in California, teaching culture and the old ways to keep the culture alive.) I now live in Oklahoma and close to the Western Cherokee tribal headquarters. When the tribes were forced here to Oklahoma, many of them brought their slaves along with them. They sided with the Southern States during the Civil War because, after all, it was the Yankee Government that put them off their ancestral lands and forced them to move far from their homeland. :) My family did not side with the South and it caused a rift in the family. They did not believe in slavery and worked as part of the underground railroad in Missouri and Iowa to help slaves escape.
I was not raised as Indian, but taught many of "the old ways" and learned the stories. I am still learning about who they were and what they believed.
~Annie