Donna,

Wooden dowels. I would take post hole diggers, dig a hole, take one bag of concrete. Pour the concrete around a 4" x 4" post in the hole you dug. The next day- Take a drill bit the size of the wooden dowel thickness and drill holes for your dowel branches. You can use screws with closed hoop ends (eye screws). Rope, shoe string leather, or wire your bottles to the eye screws on the branches. I also would polyurethan the entire wooden structure before hanging the bottles.

I believe the open mouth up was the original way that a bottle tree was meant to be hung. They were meant to ward off evil spirits. The scary sound of the wind over the mouth of a bottle would certainly do that. The different depths of rain in the bottles will make the notes vary and it will become what is called a wind organ. My concern would be that the bottles would become mosquito breeding beds and the bottles may get water stains and other bugs on the inside. (??????) I'm speculating. I have considered this for my own garden, so I've thought about it a lot.

Hope something here helps. I cant wait to see your bottle collection!!!!!

Susie

Donna if you search bottle trees in this forum I think there is a hanging one. It has bottles in pairs hung over the branches of trees. I don't remember what was holding them up/together. I decided that particular one would not be good in the wind here but it was great looking. They were more or less upright and I imagine the wind would play them.
kathy

Rent the tape Because of Winn Dixie.It is a cute little story about a little girl nand dog who befriend an interesting lady with a bottle tree that the bottles hang form.I understand the noise is QUITE spooky!

I just bought the WinnDixie tape in December. I had heard of the bottle tree in it, and now I can look as many times as I want! LOL

Hey, you could always put corks in the bottles. I would. Mosquitos are fierce here is the spring and summer.

Good luck.

Or use pieces of Mosquito Dunk, or the sprinkles that keep mosquitos from hatching. Lowe's and Home Depot, and probably garden centers.

Thanks for the ideas. I dont think I want to put a cork in them, then they wont whistle, but the dunk is a great idea.
Thanks
Donna

You can just drop a drop of sewing machine oil in each bottle, and you will not have any mosquitoes. Works for rain barrels too. Very cheap and you don't have crumbles of skeeter dunks in your bottles.

Janie

dani- Will the machine oil hurt the birds? It wont be an issue for the hanging bottles. I was wondering about a fountain or water feature. The mosquito dunks cost around $10.00 and the grainules are more than that.

Susie

I bet that will be an awesome tree when you are done with it!