As a kid I remember Jerryco and Edmund Sci catalogs selling exotic
light-bulbs which contained glowing, multi-colored electrodes in the shape
of flowers, birds, etc. Unfortunately these products vanished from the
catalogs years ago.
I recently encountered a revival: Archie-McPhee is selling edison-based
neon bulbs with electrodes in the shape of a flamingo! Accompanying the
neon-spectrum emitting avian is a green palmtree coated with (probably)
zinc sulfide. For those who aren't aware, Archie Mcphee is *the* place
for all your 50's suburb-culture needs, including lawn flamingos, plastic
patio tiki-lights, etc. Also glow-in-the-dark cockroaches,
eyeball/nose/mustache glasses, and martian-popping-thing squeeze toys. http://www.mcphee.com
Today I found yet another source: Spencer's Gifts in the local mall. They
sell a bulb containing a red roze with green foliage, also a lily which
glows deep purple (mercury? argon?)
One interesting note: in the flamingo-bulb, the palm tree appears to be
electrically isolated from everything, and it's a couple of cm from the
AC driven electrodes, yet it glows. Why?