- usadeepsouth.com
OUT OF NOWHERE
by Don Drane
A beanstalk, as it were. One minute it's not there, the next, WOW, it is!
At high noon, the red one casts a laser-like bolt of sunlight downward across the diamond-shaped clear one and the light blue one.The cobalt blues stand proudly positioned, strategically toward the top, at precise 45-degree angles, followed in downward progression by shimmering greens, yellows, golds and bronzes. Indeed a hovering craft from another timewarp seems to have landed right there near the fig trees, seventy-five feet from my back porch.
The idea of a bottle tree had bounced around in my head since I heard horticulturist Felder Rushing talking about them on his radio program one Saturday. I looked up his website to find a photo of his own bottletree, right there in his yard beside the tire display and the flamingos. His yard is a national topic of conversation and is full of his own folk-art creations. The idea consumed me.
I wanted mine to be totally different, unlike anything seen before. It was so important to me that I took a half-day of vacation from work, rounded up my son and his pickup truck and went in search. Having fished the Ross Barnett Reservoir from the bank many times, I knew they were everywhere, banging in the waves up against the ripraprock along the Natchez Trace.
It was perfect; fifteen feet long, bark long gone, limbs gone, slick as polished ice, about the circumference of a basketball. It took both of us to wrestle it out of the water and up into the truck. Must have weighed 350 pounds. An hour later, with the help of a posthole digger and three sacks of quickrete, this hundred-year-old cypress tree was firmly planted in my back yard. I had my bottle tree. The sand color, the texture, the knots, the grain were all perfect. A cypress of that age, having floated in the water for years is not far from petrified wood.
Two days later, Saturday morning, I was as ready as a nine year old getting up to go fly-fishing with his daddy. Soon as the sun was halfway up, I was drilling holes in the tree with a half-inch wood bit. Thirty-five holes in all, drilled down at 45-degree angles, all up and down my tree, which stood three feet underground and twelve feet above. I cut half-inch PVC pipe into fifteen inch sections and spray-painted them the same sand color as the tree and pushed them down into the holes I'd just drilled.
I had begun scouting for bottles that week. Perfect ones. Clear, brilliant red, cobalt blues, gold, yellow, light blue and crystal clear. Friends and coworkers donated their empty wine bottles. Mother had three deepgreen half-gallon jugs in the attic from years back. There's a product named Red Rum at the whiskey store in the most beautiful red you've ever seen. Sky Vodka comes in a modern day cobalt blue, much like the Milk of Magnesia bottles of the 50's. I poured the contents up in mason jars and positioned the red and cobalt first. The exhilaration of climbing the ladder and poking the first bottle on its peg was much like catching my first bream on a popping bug. Before the week was out, the tree had thirty beautiful, clear, shining bottles pegged on it. And I've got room for at least fifteen more if I like.
Yes, my wife loves it. Yes, the neighbors are impressed. Yes, the flamingos are pleased to have the bottle tree as company. I'm just hoping there are no 22 rifles in the neighborhood.
Note from Don Drane: I e-mailed a couple of photos of my bottle tree to Felder Rushing. Here are his comments:
From: Felder Rushing, Horticulturist/Author/Writer/Gardener/Talk Show Host.
WOW! Not shooting the breeze here; yours is one of the FINEST bottle trees I've seen! And I've seen a LOT. It's bold alright, and makes a statement even without anything planted around it. In fact, I'm not sure I'd mess with plants on it, unless you go with something delicate like a cypress vine, but instead you might think about putting some evergreen shrubs NEAR it, not under it. Consider dwarf nandina, which has great winter color but stays tidy--maybe three or five behind the tree as a backdrop. The simplicity and boldness of your tree is a statement in its own right. I definitely want to come out and photograph it. Congratulations on taking a folk art form to a new high! Felder
Dear Mr. Drane,While searching the Internet for info about bottle trees, I came across your lovely article and bottle tree picture. Your tree is truly spectacular. I'm saving bottles, but haven't a clue as yet of how I'll make the tree itself. I'll think of something. You know, out in the country (what some call "the sticks") old people used to strip the leaves off a tree or choose a dead one and slide the bottle necks down the ends of upturned limbs. On windy nights, the wind whistled in those bottles. That was said to be the sound of captured evil spirits. I don't necessarily believe bottle trees will protect one's house from spirits, but I do think they're pretty and would like to hear that spooky wind-howling jug band sound. Congratulations on your very charming tree. I'd love to see it with that glitzy-eyed rooster on top!
Sincerely, Susan Rush /Atlanta, GA
QUESTION from Jim:
I love the bottle tree you made. I have made several over the years. My question is what is the size of the pvc pipe you used to make the branches? I have some pvc pipe (half inch) and it won't fit in any of my bottles. I used bridge nails on several trees but they're too short; I used rebar on several, but I want to build a big tree and the hundreds of pieces of rebar would make the tree a real danger to work on. Can you help? See one of my trees at Holly Hill Daylilies
DON'S ANSWER:
Jim: The pegs I used on both bottle trees are 3/8 inch pvc pipe. These will fit the necks of any wine bottle or decanter, whereas the larger pipe will not work. I suspend a 10-15 foot pipe section by running a ski rope through it and hanging either end to a pine tree. Then I simply spray paint the entire length the color of my choice. In this case, I painted one black and the other sandlewood. After a couple of hours drying time, I hacksawed the pipe into 15 inch sections. Each hole is drilled at precisely a 45 degree angle (downward, of course). The dead tree was an easy drill, whereas the 2-inch square steel post was quite a challenge without an industrial drill. Tamp each section into a 5 inch drilled hole and this will support the heaviest of bottles. The metal-trunk tree, assembled, is black with 20 one-quart, antique, cobalt blue milk of magnesia bottles found way out in an abandoned woods. The cypress tree is the exact sandalwood color of the pegs and has at least 12 colors represented in 25 or so bottles at this writing. Incidentally, for Christmas my wife gave me a really old weathervane with a black rooster on top. She found it 'junking'. It's 3 feet high and makes the perfect 'top-off' for the cobalt and black bottle tree. I glued cubic zirconia eyes on the rooster.
Mr. Drane:
I stumbled upon your website while researching bottle trees as I too am creating a bottle tree for our garden. I remember them as a small child growing up in the South and a recent photograph of one in Southern Living magazine inspired me to create my own. So far I have a good collection of bottles (I need a few reds), cemented my cedar post in the ground and painted my pvc. Now comes the fun part: drilling the holes!
I've kept a journal and taken pictures of the process to this point. I plan to create a website and publish the journal and the photographs. I'll also add a link to your site if that's okay. (Actually, I already have but it's not live yet!) My wife can't wait to see the finished product!
Thank you,
D. Norman/Dripping Springs, TX
Don's reply:Don't count on finding a true red glass bottle, although I have someone looking in Germany and Paris for that color. I saw the one in Southern Living too and am still mad because they didn't call me up (kidding). I added 9 bottles to mine last weekend and am soon going to get another 7 or so up. I'm currently thinking of a way to come up with a right angle rod to put on the tree so the next wave of bottles will be perfectly vertical to compliment the 45 degree ones. Good luck on your tree and let me know when the photos are up. Actually I have photos of the stages too. The tree by itself, the ladder and drill next to it, the pegs, the first couple of bottles, etc. In one evening photo there is clearly an unidentified flying object in the background between two gold bottles and I am hiding that photo from the government.
Dear Don,
For a while I had it in my head to make a bottle tree. A neighbor built a barn structure outside our bedroom window, so big it now blocks the stars we used to view at night before we went to sleep. The corner of the barn cuts directly down onto our house, and although I say I am not superstitious, I feel a restless discomfort about our bedroom now, something that was not there before the barn was built. They also added a train sized container, as if the thousands of squared cubic feet of barn wasn't enough for their workshops. So instead of a hillside of oaks and scrub and granite rock, we now view storage buildings.
The idea of a bottle tree came to me when a friend said I should put wind chimes in the oak tree between the barn and us. They said the Chinese believe that would break up the negative energy flowing from the barn to the house. That's when I remember reading Ms. Welty's short story that had the description of a bottle tree that captured evil spirits. And my stepfather (who was African American, filled with wonderful lore) told me it was a custom to draw ancestors and evil spirits away from the house. Do I believe all of this? I don't think so. But I desire to have a bottle tree none-the-less. If it deflects that feeling I have that ruined the peaceful bedroom, well, all to the good.
So I began this week with three small wind chimes that have colored glass in them. I have added three bottles this morning. If nothing else, when I look out the window, I chuckle, and that is worth the effort. I will begin the quest for bottles of every color and size.
The tree is alive, an oak, my favorite kind of tree. I read in one of the stories linked to yours that when trees grow it presents some kind of problem. Well, I like the idea that I must keep an eye out for the tree, to make sure the bottles do not hinder it in anyway, and there continues to be harmony between the tree and the bottles I am asking it to hold. I like your bottle trees and the others linked to your site, but mine will be more make-shift, depending on what I find as time goes along, with no plan in mind, except to add the reflected light between the ugly buildings and my home. Thanks for your story. -- Shirley K.
From: Wisebroad33
As a child, I had heard of bottle trees from the Beaufort/Jasper/Hampton areas of SC and the lore that accompanied them. I now have a friend with whom I try to out-tacky our back yards. Along with a flamingo gardens, old window sashes and small mirrors hanging in the trees, we each have 2 bottle trees. I only wish I knew more folks who bought wine in colored bottles -- but then again we Baptists don't speak to each other in the liquor store here in Aiken. The trees are truly a work in progress and the family just chocks up my behavior and bizarre taste to "getting older."
BLUE BOTTLE TREE by Charlotte Conner
And another: Readers, be sure to visit THE BOTTLE TREE MAN!
And for more terrific Don Drane stories, check these out:
Beer Butt Chicken (Brew-steamed Fowl)
A Not-So-Fond Memory
Mulberry Street
January Soup
Check the Articles Archives for many more!
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