Lighting special effects

You can create a real fairy-tale night landscape in your garden with clever use of lighting, placing spots in the ground and on brackets in trees so that the lights work with the plants around them to create a strong sense of atmosphere. Here are some of the effects possible using garden lighting available from our garden centre.

Uplighting emphasises contrasts: light up white silver birch and coppery Tibetan cherry (Prunus serrula) for a striking effect.

Use silhouettes by lighting a house wall from behind a sculptural acer or craggy pine to cast its shadow onto the surface.

Light trees in groups in different ways to avoid a uniform look: light some from the front, some from beneath and others from the side to create interesting effects.

Moonlighting is when lights are fixed in a tree pointing down, to cast a dappled shadow on the ground below: anyone sitting on a tree seat underneath is bathed in subtle light.

Hanging lights can be used in smaller trees to provide pools of light or glimmering, sparkling dots of light for a magical, almost fairy-like effect.

Please ask the staff in our garden centre for more information and advice about how to use lighting to create special effects in the garden.