Check this out: Bottle Tree History by Felder Rushing.

I like this photo from the 30's and the excerpt below it:

"Solomon had made the bottle trees with his own hands over the nine years, in labor amounting to about a tree a year, and without a sign that he had any uneasiness in his heart, for he took as much pride in his precautions against spirits coming in the house as he took in the house, and sometimes in the sun the bottle trees looked prettier than the house did..."

More than you ever wanted to know about bottle trees!

The old bottle trees do look nice, but yard seems a bit neglected. Suppose they got too busy celebrating the end of Prohibition? :-)

Good observation! I didn't think about that.

Pic reminds me of a Grapes of Wrath scene.

In re: blue paint, this is what I’d heard. We have two neighbors in our little subdiv. Who have painted their porches blue.

But many still theorize that insects prefer not to nest on blue ceilings because they are "fooled" into thinking the blue paint is actually the sky.

Roselee, very entertaining reading.

While studying how to combat thrips, I read that rose growers use blue cups coated in oil to attract the tiny crawling devils.

Too bad there isn't a thrip attacking, I mean thrip attracting semiochemical available, to put a drop inside. (however, if they are considered 'beneficial' insects, well then I don't know how to proceed - I like bringing a fragrant cut rose indoors for the day to be able to inhale the nice aroma periodically, but am reluctant to bring dozens of thrips in the house - who knows what they're up to and where they'll go). whoops, forgive me for going off topic.

Dan, speaking of inhaling the wonderful scent of roses (Omar is going to love this) I have "snorted' flower thrips. Dang, not fun. Not as bad as snorting white fuzzy caterpillars though ... LOL

Along the line of Bostedo's comment about the prohibition a friend messaged this: "Blue bottles in hanging baskets make me think that somebody drinks so much, they’ve run out of room and are having to put them in hanging baskets." OMG -- they are on to me. Ha!

Actually I was looking at the area trying to figure out a way to hang the bottles straight down out of the trees but I didn't have the materials to do it with so plunking them in the baskets was the next best thing.

Bossy, thanks for pictures of how other have displayed their bottles. I especially like the first photo with the multicolored bottles.

Y'all may have seen my blue tailed rooster with the green wings, but if not here he is again ...

Here's something else I've done with them until I removed the bottles from the exploding blue bottle agave 'tree" because the leaves had started dying from hail damage.

So come on y'all -- show us the things you've done with bottles in the garden, besides drink out of them. I'm referring to drinking water of course ... :-)

I’m gonna do an exploding bottle thing with a bromeliad, just haven’t gotten ‘round to it

A side story. The first year I got the nerve to hijack a truck, a neighbor, One who observed my every move, decided that he would also do the hijack thing. He got a couple of piles and he never used them. They became ugly dirt piles in his front yard. When he sold his house, he had to pay for removing the pile, ha. He wasn’t a gardener, he just wanted to have something I had. He has since moved but I see him at least once a month cruising the area.

Oh my, I do love blue bottle art. Ours seems so unimaginative in comparison.

I'm thinking about snorting cow manure, chile pequin or something like that just to feel I belong to this group.

Omar

Do it

Now there's a challenge if I ever saw one! :-)

Omar, your comment did make me laugh out loud - literally!

Pam, I remembered you having a bottle tree, but forgot what it looked like. Thank you for posting the picture. Very neat!

I finally got around to getting a picture. By the way, rose Lee, your photography is amazing. I love all things southern in my yard. I even painted the ceiling of my back porch “haint blue”. If you look close, the little lavender bottles are my tribute to Estée Lauder.

Junegreen, I absolutely love your bottle tree! Those different colored ones, especially red and lavender, really make it pop, also the different sized ones give it a lot of character. Thanks for posting your photo.

Anybody else have some 'bottle tree' photos?

Here's some more ideas; a bottle tree that my friend Linda M. put together ...

...

Some time back we decided the tower Bob built needed something on top so he straightened out a wrought iron candelabra, turned it upside down, and attached it to hold some of our bottles ...

...

He also straightened out some pieces of wrought iron that originally curved around made a bottle holder out of a plate holder ...

I had one bottle left over and stuck in here until I figure out something else ...

Wider view ...

That's a "Pink sunburst' canna ...

And here in an old post where Linda M. offers some Do's and don'ts of making bottle trees ... :-) She's so funny!

The main thing is just to have fun -- whatever you do!

It's been a long time since I read Felder Rushing's article, thank you, Roselee!

The lamp w/canna, ahhhh

I’ve always found the green bottles the least