Planting Your “Bottle Tree”

Bill Lipsey from Sunflower, Mississippi pondered how people toss out bottles of wine that have sentimental and/or celebratory value behind them—to the drinker. That is, “sentimental bottles” that have helped celebrate a birthday, a graduation, an engagement, a wedding, an anniversary, etc. Mr. Lipsey decided that these special moment bottles should be displayed or stored—on a “Bottle Tree.”

The “trees” are made from smooth, round rods and are shipped unpainted although customers have painted them in their preferred colors. The empty bottles are jammed in the end of the rods; where they are held. The trees are five feet tall and hold between 8 and 25 bottles.

The bottle tree’s concept originated in Africa where it was believed that bottles suspended from trees would attract evil spirits when the sun glimmered through the glass and the evil spirits would be trapped inside every bottle.

So—after you empty that next bottle of wine, keep it so you can start the first branch of your “Bottle Tree.”