NEELI REAMER Special to The Roanoke Times

Jim Coartney of Floyd made this blue bottle tree.

Neeli Reamer is The Roanoke Times' gardening columnist. Her column appears twice monthly in Extra.

Neeli Reamer

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About Neeli

Neeli Reamer is a Master Gardener who has a bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communication and a master's degree in counseling, where she focused heavily on horticultural therapy techniques.

She believes gardening isn't about being perfect, it's about having fun.

During the 1950s, my mother attended a small summer camp for girls in the mountains of North Carolina. Camp Roughewn sat on the shores of Lake James, near Asheville, and was run by Miss Lillian Watkins, a Juilliard-trained pianist.

Miss Lillian, whom I also had the privilege of knowing, taught Mom and the others to love nature: the ferns, the wildflowers, the rocks and the tiny creatures in the forest. She named the vine-covered woods at Lake James "Fairyland" because of all of the beauty and wonder they contained.

My mother says Miss Lillian took the girls on hikes, canoe rides, led crafting sessions and encouraged sing-alongs around the campfire. While in their cabins at night, the girls whispered ghost stories, as well as tales about the "haunted" stone cottage beside the camp.

What sparked their imaginations about the little house next door was that a fence of cobalt blue glass bottles surrounded the entire property. Some bottles, mostly Milk of Magnesia, were in the trees.

What could this mean?

Miss Lillian told the campers that the lady who lived there believed her blue glass bottles kept evil spirits away. This belief was once common in parts of the South and other places in the world.

The theory was that bad spirits flying by during the night got trapped inside the bottles, and sunshine destroyed them in the morning.

Most gardeners today don't take stock in such myths, but one thing is true: Blue bottle trees are more fashionable than ever. I've seen wonderful examples of this type of garden art throughout Southwest Virginia. I decided one would look perfect in my yard too.

Rushing to the rescue

I contacted the leading authority on bottle trees, garden author and radio host Felder Rushing, to learn more about them.

Some claim the bottle tree tradition originated in the Congo in the 9th century, but Rushing traces their roots back further.

"Superstitions about bottle trees and spirits is a 3,000-year-old Arabian folk tale that goes back to bottle genies and flying carpets," Rushing says.

"Bottle imp" legends swirled down through Africa and came to America with slaves. Rushing, a Mississippi native, has photographed bottle trees all over the South and elsewhere.

Though bottle trees now appear in very upscale gardens, "We call 'em 'poor man's stained glass,' " he says.

So how do you create a bottle tree?

The first step is to start collecting pretty glass bottles, in assorted shapes and sizes. I've saved several blue wine bottles so far.

Blue glass is best, and was probably used most in the past because the color is thought to symbolize the sea, sky, peace, calm, spirituality and happiness. However, other colors, like red, green, yellow and even clear, are welcome on bottle trees.

There is really no right or wrong way to build your bottle tree. They are just as unique as their owners.

Bottle tree options

One method is to slip bottles over the branches of a small, dead tree in your yard. You may want to dig a deep hole and plant the dead tree in a focal point before you decorate. A tree limb or dead shrub will also work.

Cedars and crepe myrtles make particularly nice bottle trees, according to Rushing.

A woman I read about recycled her Christmas tree. She chopped the branches short, secured bottles over the ends, then placed the tree, stand and all, in her garden.

Another idea is to install a wooden post in the ground. Hang your bottles from extra long nails or rods positioned at 45-degree angles around the post.

Some industrious gardeners weld bottle trees out of iron or copper. Prefabricated metal bottle tree stands can be found online or may be available at your local garden center.

Jim Coartney, of Granny Janny's Hostas in Floyd and a retired Virginia Tech horticulture professor, constructs his by bending different lengths of rebar into a tree formation.

Others simply slide bottles on garden stakes and call it a day.

A mini bottle tree would look great on an apartment balcony. There are no rules; bring the bottle tree indoors if you like.

Put twinkle lights on your bottle tree. Change the bottle hues over the holidays, or show off your team's colors during the playoffs. Just have fun!

A bottle tree will sparkle in the sun, and adds a touch of Southern charm to your garden.

The perks of owning bottle trees are that you never have to water or prune them. They are deerproof; they hold their color year round, and you can't kill them -- although I do worry about what happens when a big windstorm comes along.

Blue porch ceilings?

I grew up in a historic Southern house. My father always painted the front porch ceiling light blue.

Sometimes he said he did this because it looked good. Other times he said he heard this color warded off evil spirits, not that he believed in such nonsense. Actually, almost every other home in our town had a soft, Carolina blue porch ceiling.

When I moved to New Orleans I heard all kinds of speculation as to why porch ceilings should be blue: The Victorians liked them to match the sky; the blue hue keeps spiders from spinning webs and wasps from making nests there; light blue paint repels mosquitoes (these last theories probably stemmed from the fact that lime that was once used in paint).

But most folklorists agreed that yes, a blue porch ceiling keeps bad spirits away. They can't cross anything that looks like water. There is even a name for the traditional blue porch ceiling paint in New Orleans: Haint Blue. Haint Blue is widely used on historic architecture in Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga., and other cities in the South.

So, combine a haint blue porch ceiling with a bottle tree in the yard and it's guaranteed evil spirits won't come knocking on your door.

Tip of the week

John Thisdell of Roanoke e-mailed a tip for making leaf compost.

"When I was in middle school, my friend's mom put her fallen leaves in black plastic bags, added water, tied them closed and left them in the garden over the winter. In spring we would open them up and turn the leaf mold into the soil.

"Using the black plastic bags speeds up the decay, which would be very slow during the cooler months. I did this last year and it produced a lot of organic material for a new garden area I was planting. Be warned, however, that the leaf mold will be a little messy and smelly!!"

On the Net: www.felderrushing.net has hundreds of photos of bottle trees and additional bottle tree lore.

Do you have a garden tip you'd like to share? Please e-mail me.

Neeli Reamer's "Down to Earth" column runs every other Saturday in Extra.