My New Bottle Tree

Look what Santa brought me for Christmas- a BOTTLE TREE!  I've wanted one of these for a long time.  But it's not as if you can just drive on down to your local bottle tree store and pick one up- especially in the northwest.  My son, Steve, has a welding hobby and this year he surprised me with this beauty.

Bottle trees originated in the southern U.S.  Their history is based on superstition, but I don't know much about it and if I write anything, I'll probably get it wrong.  If you're curious, just type "bottle tree" in your search engine and you'll get lots of info.  For me- it's yard art.  And with all of the wineries in the northwest, there is no shortage of empty wine bottles around here.  I've seen bottle trees made from wood, but they are most often metal.  My son welded metal rods and twisted the ends upward so a bottle could be slipped on.

This is just the beginning.  We'll sink it into the ground and anchor it with metal (and maybe concrete) so it will withstand the rain and wind.  We're also going to wire it with little white lights, and insert a few lights inside each bottle.  I'll be planting some sort of flowering vine at the bottom and train it to climb the "trunk" and provide foliage around the branches.  We'll also be hanging a few hummingbird feeders that are made from upside-down bottles.  This is going to look SOOOOOO cool!  And my other son and his wife gave me a blown glass bird bath that will look beautiful next to this.  I can hardly wait for spring!!!!

I sew things for Steve and he welds things for me.  Gotta love it.  THANK YOU, STEVE!!!!