My Bottle Tree

I can't remember where I first saw or heard of the “bottle tree”. I know it was about six or seven years ago. I am thinking it was a story in Southern Living magazine featuring Felder Rushing. I was fascinated and just knew that I had to have one.

I did a little bit of research at the time. The practice was most common for African Americans in the deep south. It is thought to have originated as an ancient African custom going back as far as ninth century Congo when natives hung hand-blown glass on trees to ward off evil. I personally do not remember them in the rural community in which I was raised. I think they were more popular in the Mississippi Delta region and perhaps along the Carolina Coast. Blue bottles are best for attracting and entrapping the evil spirits. Milk of Magnesia bottles were commonly used, likely because that was what was most abundant. The limbs on the tree should “point toward heaven”. Crepe Myrtle trees were often used.

Probably, the most well known reference to bottle trees comes from Eudora Welty in her short story “Livvie”, about a young African American woman. Livvie "knew that there could be a spell put in trees, and she was familiar from the time she was born with the way bottle trees kept evil spirits from coming into the house -- by luring them inside the colored bottles, where they cannot get out again." More recent appearances of bottle trees have been in the movies “Ray” and in the yard of the character played by Cicely Tyson in “Because of Winn Dixie”.

My first bottle tree was made from a limb that I needed to remove from a tree in my yard. It was somewhat symmetrical with upward pointing branches. I used hole diggers to plant it a couple feet in the ground and then started decorating with the bottles I had collected. It lasted a couple of years. My second tree came from a volunteer oak that I cut and buried in the original hole. I've had it for a few years, but I lost the top portion earlier this year during a wind storm. I've also seen bottle trees created from treated wood - something like a fence post with nails or dowels inserted to serve as branches. While I don't think these are as authentic, they are attractive and will certainly have a longer life span.

A few points:

• If you are using a cut tree or limb, it will not last forever. You can probably get a few years of life from your tree.


• If the bottles are not evenly dispersed on the tree, over time you will see it begin to bend and favor the more heavily weighted side.


• If your bottles do not 'point toward heaven', they will collect water – creating more weight on the limbs and also creating cute little condos for mosquitos.


• Blue bottles are best. You can find old Milk of Magnesia bottles on ebay and in antique shops. I've seen sports drinks, imported water and white wine in blue bottles. Since I mostly drink red wine, I have been know to give a bottle of Riesling as a gift and then ask for the empty bottle back! My dear family has even given me empty blue bottles for my birthday, much to my delight!

They must really work. I haven't had any evil spirits lurking around my house!