How to beautifully illuminate trees and plants in your garden
If you’re looking to create a bit of drama in your garden or you’re looking to create a beautiful, welcoming place for people to enjoy their evening in a commercial space, plant and tree lights are the perfect way to achieve this. Apart from letting passers-by know where your flower beds are in the dark, garden tree lights are more aesthetic. They highlight the beauty in nature and create a pleasant place to be.
However, if you need help figuring out where to start, we have written this guide to show you how to light trees in your garden, our top tips about using tree lights and all the different plant lights you can use to illuminate your flower beds.
Table of contents
- How do you illuminate an outdoor tree?
- Illuminating different-sized trees
- 6 Lights to illuminate plants in your garden
How do you illuminate an outdoor tree?
If you’re lucky to have beautiful trees in your garden or commercial space, why keep them in the dark? Highlight them with beautiful light beams to show their magnificence even after sunset. However, lighting trees can be challenging as all trees are different. You must use your creative license to assemble a lighting masterpiece based on your unique trees.
However, you will have to think about some crucial elements before you plan your outdoor tree lights, like the size, type of tree, location and mood you want to create. For example, you can illuminate a tree with uplighting and downlighting. Uplighting can make a dramatic focal point in a garden. Downlighting can create a cosy and inviting space in the area below.
Illuminating different-sized trees
Small deciduous trees
For small deciduous trees, you only need one 35° accent uplighter. Ensure you illuminate the tree on the side where people will view it. You will benefit from two lights if you can view the tree from multiple angles. The light should graze the trunk and point into the canopy for a dramatic effect.
Medium deciduous trees
Experiment with cross-lighting with medium deciduous trees. Take two 35° accent uplighters and direct the beam towards the canopy but crossing over each other. Again, graze the trunk with the light beam.
Large deciduous trees
A large tree, around 60-100 feet, will require several fittings installed at the tree base to highlight the trunk upwards. Position them slightly away from the tree trunk and pointing into the canopy.
For the lights in the tree, you will need a tree mount kit with stainless steel screws, or even better, a rubber strap, so the tree has room to grow. The mounting box holds each accent light and houses the connections. Run any wires up the non- or less-visible side of the tree and fasten to the trunk with cable clamps. Make sure you leave enough wire at the end to allow for tree growth.
Fir trees
Fir trees with more closed branches look better illuminated from outside the canopy. Take two 60° angle accent lights to spread light on the two sides of the tree. Place the lights further away to illuminate more of the tree.
Colour and mood
You will also have to think about light colour and temperature. Most trees will look perfect with warm white light, between 2700k and 3000k.
6 lights to illuminate plants in your garden
Incorporating flower bed lights in your landscape lighting scheme will bring a delightful charm to your garden. Enjoy your flowers even at night with strategically placed plant lights. Illuminating your flower beds looks stunning, but it also indicates walkway boundaries and prevents people from accidentally stepping on your precious flowers.
Garden spike lights
Garden spike lights are the obvious first choice for illuminating plants. Use the spike base to stick the light in the soil, and use upward lighting to highlight your plants and shrubs. Some of our garden spike lights have adjustable heads, so you can point the light to illuminate a precise part of a plant. Adjustable light heads also come in handy when a plant grows. You can re-adjust it to suit the plant height.
We offer an extensive range of garden spike lights in various colours and finishes to suit your garden aesthetic. Take your pick in our garden spike light collection.
Spotlights
Spotlights are a great way to accentuate and highlight your plants and foliage. Stick them in the ground and highlight your plants upwards or mount them to a garden wall to illuminate a plant from above. The adjustable heads mean you can change where you highlight a plant as the plant grows.
Spotlights provide a concentrated light beam, meaning your plants will stand out in a dark garden as a beautiful focal point. Discover our range of garden spotlights in various styles, designs and finishes to match your garden aesthetic.
Pole lights
Vary your lighting levels with pole lights. Pole lights allow you to illuminate plants and shrubbery from a higher level. If you have taller bushes and plants, a pole light can provide illumination with height. There are three main types of pole lights in our collection. Firstly, adjustable spotlights that provide a concentrated beam to highlight a plant. Alternatively, you can opt for a pole light with a light at the top of the pole that casts light outwards and creates a halo effect. Or, you can opt for a hooded pole light that casts light downwards.
To find the perfect pole light to suit your plant heights, browse our collection of pole lights today.
Ground lights
Another popular outdoor light fitting to illuminate your potted patio flowers is ground lights. You can recess these square or circular dot lights into hard ground and cast an upward light beam. Upward light can make a dramatic effect creating shadows between leaves on shrubbery.
Strategically dot these lights around your flower bed borders to indicate the flower bed boundary. Explore our ground light collection to find the perfect design and finish to suit your exterior style.
Hanging Lights
You can’t leave our tree light collection without taking a look at our hanging tree lights. We offer a few styles ranging from festoon string light styles to pendant lights that you can tie to branches. One of our most popular tree lights is the Starry Outdoor Hanging Light, a copper lantern-style pendant light that creates a captivating twinkling effect. Use multiple of these hanging lights to create a magical atmosphere underneath the tree.
Solar lights
Solar lights are also a great way to illuminate your flower beds. As the sunlight during the day charges the solar panels, there is no need for any wiring. As a result, they are easy to install, and you can change your light arrangement whenever you want.
Dot these solar lights around your flower beds from spike light style to orb style, giving a magical glow to your landscape design. Find a plant light that best suits your flower beds in our solar light collection.
Tree and plant lights at Moonlight Design
There you have it! Our top tips on creating a beautiful landscape lighting scheme using tree and plant lights. At Moonlight Design, we have an extensive range of garden and landscape lights to help illuminate and highlight your beautiful tree, flowers and foliage. Discover our collection of tree lights online and start planning your dream landscape lighting scheme today.
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