Malevolent spirits are lured at night inside blue bottles on a bottle tree. When the sun's first light touches the glass, the evil beings are destroyed. Bottle trees were found in rural, primarily African-American, communities in the southern United States.
This bottle tree, underplanted with okra, is part of a collection of historical plantings placed in raised beds
at the North Carolina Botanical Garden.
Please click on image to larger view.
Love the bottle tree and the lore that accompanies it. I enjoy this drawing - I can imagine visiting the botanical gardens; you've portrayed it so beautifully.
Posted by: Pam in Tucson | July 06, 2006 at 04:02 PM
wow. what a great idea. I never heard of such a thing. This is so much fun. Reminds me of the "Grandma's Bottle Village" documentary. Did you ever see that?
Lovely drawings Laura. As usual.
Posted by: Amanda | July 05, 2006 at 11:29 AM
beautiful, beautiful drawing!
Posted by: lydia | July 04, 2006 at 11:37 AM
That's something the homesick part of me wants in my backyard garden--a bottle tree. Maybe in the future hedge maze... Or by the gazebo of dutchman's pipe. Wonder if my Yankee neighbors will hate it? I remember dazzling clear and clear-gone-amethyst ones in Georgia, but I, too, like the ones that include cobalt blue.
Ben Steelman, the books editor at the Wilmington paper, lives down the alley from an artist's bottle house--quite thick, made from wine bottles, I think... Wonderful.
Posted by: marlyat2 | June 30, 2006 at 01:03 PM
Thank you so much, everyone. Maybe it's time for a whole new generation of bottle trees!
Posted by: Laura | June 30, 2006 at 12:00 PM
What a wonderful journal page. The blue is beautiful!
Posted by: Sioux | June 30, 2006 at 10:08 AM