Photo of blue bottle tree by Nancy K. Meyers
Recycling is one of the many ways gardeners care for the environment and every once in a while, turns out to be entertainment in itself.
Recycling leads to the occasional surplus of craft materials for the do-it-yourselfer. And … if you’re very lucky … something fun for your garden like blue bottle trees. Bright blue ornaments attract birds and bees and lots of curiosity … and a quick search on the Internet shows blue bottle tree mania is “sprouting up” around the world.
Nancy K. Meyers of Iowa makes blue bottle art from recycled glass she buys for 5¢ each at her neighborhood grocery store. The bases are made from recycled rebar, lighting rods, even surplus curtain rods … the garden hides most of the “stems,” she explains, but the details on the rebar are especially eye catching with lots of texture. Blue bottles can also be placed on trees and shrub limbs, or posts with dowels inserted. Wiring bottles so that they dangle upside-down is another way to use the “fruits” of blue bottle recycling.
Blue bottle trees are adaptable to many different climates … and how sturdy they are in cold weather, as long as they have some protection from high winds, and ice does not form inside of them.
~~ Courtesy Cubby’s Art Studio
According to several sources, the trees are used to keep evil spirits out of one’s home. Tales began to circulate that spirits could live in bottles – probably from when people heard sounds caused by wind blowing over bottle openings.
It is believed that the spirits are dazzled by the colors of the bottles in the sun. Once they enter the bottle, they can’t find their way out, much like flies. Legend had it that empty glass bottles placed outside the home could “capture” roving (usually evil) spirits at night, and the spirit would be destroyed the next day in the sunshine.
Kirk Willis shows his blue bottle tree in the snow, below left; Annie Grossart-Stein’s green bottle tree, in the photo below right, filled with fairy lights for enchanted evenings.
COBALT BLUE – Favored for bottle trees, but named after German gnomes
~~ Courtesy Felder Rushing
For some very interesting reasons, the color of choice for bottle trees has long been blue. While most experts disagree on how or even if, when cultural biases are taken out of testing, colors affect humans psychologically, many references agree that blue is a universally relaxing, calming color.
Blue glass can be made from adding copper oxides to molten glass, but for over five thousand years the most widespread colorant has been cobalt, a shiny, gray, brittle metal found in copper and nickel ores. Ingots of cobalt glass have been recovered from Minoan shipwrecks dating from as long ago as 2700 BC, and a cobalt-blue Persian glass necklace has been dated to BC 2250. Cobalt glazes have been found in Egyptian tombs of that period as well. And in 79 AD when Vesuvius blew itself to pieces, it buried cobalt glass objects with their owners. The Tang Dynasty of China used cobalt coloring as early as 600 AD.
The name “cobalt” arises from the Greek by way of Medieval Germany, from the Schneeberg Moutains in the Erzgebirge region of Saxony (Germany) which was a silver mining area. The term “Kobald” (earliest records of the name is in 1335) applied to gnomes (spirits) which were thought to cause trouble in mines. The problems were actually due to cobalt interfering with the silver smelting and causing some respiratory problems with the miners, but the name stuck.
Where to find materials: Our savvy flea market gardeners find blue bottles in the store, sold containing water, sparkling water and wine. Yards sales and thrift shops are another source and blue bottles especially are on many a mental list of ‘needs.’ Some are brave enough to ask for blue bottles (or whatever color) at a bar or restaurant.
Some of our FMGers have been surprised to find blue bottles dropped off at their front doors! Make sure you inform your friends that you’re on the search!
Labels: Paper labels can simply be soaked off in hot water. Soak them in the kitchen sink.
Rods and branches Hang bottles on rebar or metal rods bent in the shape you want. Of course if you know someone who can weld, you can get even more creative. Stores sell bottle ‘trees’ now that thy are so popular as well.
Some smart gardeners stick bottles right on branches in different configurations.
How to EASILY remove bottle labels for garden crafts
Sensational recycled solar lights in the garden
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Loved your story Stephie about blue bottles in the garden. Hope others will be inspired to try this too, it is so much fun. Great to see what everyone else is doing, too. Thanks
Nancy, I have been so inspired by your bottle displays. I noticed on one you used rebar (near pampas grass which sways in the wind). My question is, does the rebar let bottles sway slightly also, or do the stay stationary in the way they are bent? I've been planning a cobalt blue bottle tree for the past couple of years just because of Flea Market Gardening. I have look at many manufacturered ones, and there is a man in our county who welds them. However, I believe I like the rebar ones which are not connected the best. Especially in a clump of grass.
Thank you Jeanne, for telling me how to post. I was reversing my name and email before and it wouldn't post that way.
The long rods are weld together at the bottom in a hollow tube. They sway ever so slightly in the wind. In all the years, I have only lost one bottle to breakage. Hope this helps.
I made a blue bottle tree a few years ago and love it. I also have a green one.
I loved the lights in the bottles TYFS
I love the title, it made me smile. The pictures were inspiring and I'm glad you gave us some pointers. I've been putting bottles and vases in my flower beds the last few years, but I'm hopeing to make a couple bottle trees before spring. Thanks for the inspiration.
Enjoyed your article, Stephie! Lots of great ideas here!! I so enjoy the sunshine & reflections of the blue bottles & plan to edge a whiskey barrel with Platinum Bud ones in the Spring. Those fairy lights in Annie's green bottles are just delightful!!! Nancy has come up with so many wonderful ideas in her 'Blue Heaven!' Kirk's blue bottle tree in the snow is just beautiful! Thanks, Stephie McCarthy, for sharing!
Thanks for such a lovely article. This is something I have planned for a couple of years, and your article out wheels under my feet. Since I am the caregiver for my 98-yr-old father, I cannot get out enough to find the lovely bottles. So I went to my old standby, ebay, and ordered 15 beer bottles. With shipping it was only $3 each, and that's really convenient for me. Will install my bottles by spring, but right now I'm running a race with the beauiful black capped chickadees. I'm building houses that will open for cleaning, and the right size to put a soup can or some other can for them to excavate their nest in. Will put cedar chips both in and around the can, so they can excavate happily. Also will fill a suet feeder with either rabbit fur or antique mink fur that I've bought at antique shops. We have lots of chickadees at our feeder and I want them to nest in dad's yard. Even though they don't build their nests until April, they pick out their nesting sight in late January and early February. I have to rush.
Just installed a bottle tree at the daughter's house and another one at the grandgirl's apartment this morning. I am doing my part to make sure the "forrest" does not die out !!!