Comments on: Endangered Species—The Bottle Tree

By: Frigga

Frigga — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:30:34 +0000

Now I’m jealous! I want one… but I don’t even have a tree… Oh well, such as life in an apartment

Friggas last blog post..A Few Notes

Make one out of a plastic Christmas tree?

By: missmeliss

missmeliss — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 19:53:24 +0000

So, it’s been a year almost- any luck with your bottle tree? I’m thinking of starting one this weekend.
Go, girl! I can’t get my husband to cut down the tree I want to use (it’s deader than a post, but we haven’t had time). I have bottles, I know where I want to put it…just no follow through. Hope you do better than I did!

By: Greg

Greg — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 21:22:25 +0000

Thank you for the link; since I shot the bottle farm in CA, I’ve run across a few examples of one or two bottle trees in brand new tourist attractions, as if they are trying to emulate the look.

But I am wondering, does anyone else remember that there used to be a lot more backlit colored bottle displays in windows? It seems every elderly woman that babysat me in the 60s had a window of deeply color-saturated bottles, as if they were sitting there to ripen.

Maybe it was a 1960s or a Midwest/Ozark thing?

Oh, Greg, I remember those bottle displays, too. I hadn’t thought about that in years. Yes, it was done in Texas. But, it may be “one of them Southern thangs.” Your pictures were fabulous! I’m so glad to have been able to link to them. “Waiting to ripen” I love that. ~skt

By: JAM

JAM — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 18:08:21 +0000

I haven’t seen a bottle tree since I was a kid in Louisiana. Great story, and that Eudora Welty pic is great.

Isn’t that fabulous? There is supposed to be a book with many of her pictures in them I have to go find it.~skt

By: Matty

Matty — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 12:01:05 +0000

Never heard of bottle tree’s. I think it would be a bit tacky for my front yard, but good idea for the back. I know you can get interesting bottle’s cheap at 2nd-hand or thrift stores. I love the history behind it.

Yes, Matty, the history is what interests me the most. But, then I’m a little superstitious, too I couldn’t put it in the front yard, or some horrible blogger would take a picture of it and make fun of me on the internet (just like I did for my neighbor’s mailbox). It would be what I deserve, wouldn’t it?~skt

By: amy

amy — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 09:25:59 +0000

What a cool post..LOved learning about the bottle tree..thanks

Thanks, Amy, now when you see one, you can remember its history and it won’t seem so tacky!~skt

By: Thorne

Thorne — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 05:46:58 +0000

I fell in love with bottle trees as a child, some along the old Rte 66, in the ’60’s, when we used to travel to the High Desert to our weekend getaway ranch (where I live now). I’ve been wanting to add a bottle tree to my interesting yard sculptures… I may even make at leat one into a sort of bottle tree. The folklore is similar to “witches bottles”. I love those too. If I weren’t so stingy, I’d send you a bottle. Maybe we could trade bottles??

I’m not sure I know about “witches bottles.” Are they the round globes? I have a globe hanging in my office that a friend gave me a long time ago, and I think that’s what she called it. We can trade bottles. I’m not stingy ~skt