JOHN RAINE - Professional Nightscaping Service

Colour considerations are a significant factor in the lighting of shrub borders. In winter, variegated evergreens, colourful stems and berries and the dried stems, foliage and seed heads beloved of the flower arranger can provide a surprisingly strong impact under lighting. In summer, lighting of borders often appears less bright than in winter as the light is absorbed by darker, denser foliage. This is one example of when the flexibility of low voltage systems comes into play, facilitating the repositioning and refocusing of lights according to which specimens are of current interest. Darker leafed specimens are are less reflective than lighter coloured or variegated foliage; lighting camelias and rhododendrons in flower can be stunning, but for the rest of the year these are fairly boring subjects for illumination unless companion planting offers seasonal alternatives.

Flowers in pale colours such as pink and yellow, and in particular in white, stand out readily under relatively low levels of light. Where planting is dense, downlighting from trees and structures can introduce wide coverage and provide a contrast for uplighting or crosslighting of planting from ground-mounted lights. This is particularly important where flowers rather than foliage are key to the garden design, as flowers tend to face upwards and are not seen at there best when uplit from below. Downlighting from a pergola beam, post or wall is often an effective way of highlighting flowers of climbing plants as well as providing overlapping lighting onto a path or patio beneath. "Moonlighting" down from trees is a subtle way of lighting areas planted with bulbs or to light herbaceous borders where planting density conspires against uplighting of individual plants.

Plants with strong leaf shape offer opportunities for projecting shadows up through the plant or onto adjacent surfaces, and architectural planting makes a striking feature. Phormiums, gunnera and tree ferns are three contrasting examples of individual specimens where leaf shape determines the drama of the lighting subject. For natural colour effect, use the white light typical of tungsten halogen and some discharge light sources as this flatters the natural colours of flower and foliage, as well as of construction materials. The misguided idea of using a blue or green spotlight to light a specimen plant is more likely to make it look like an artificial Christmas tree. 50 watt 36-60 degree lamps are also often the best choice for uplighting larger shrubs in the more mature garden. In smaller gardens use 35 watt lamps with 36-60 degree beams; in roof gardens and small courtyards, stick to 20 watts.

Spike mount spotlights are more versatile than recessed lights for shrub borders as they offer a greater degree of lamp beam adjustment. Lighting diagonally along the border rather than just shining the spotlight backwards from the front of the border will increase coverage, reduce the visible boundary of the light beam and produce an interplay of shadow between adjacent plants to provide a more three-dimensional effect. The Megabay Universal spike spotlight is one of the most versatile units around; the standard glare guard is especially useful for shielding glare near paths, terraces and windows, while the finned ground spike and screw-lockable knuckle joint hold it the light beam firmly in place to avoid frequent refocusing as a result of children’s balls or boisterous dogs disturbing the fittings or wiring. I like to use the green version (M5520GRE) – it’s a good choice for general purpose shrub lighting as it is easily hidden among low planting at the front of the border. It is also available in “granite” (M5520GRA) for use in rockeries as well as in traditional black (M5520BLA), though increasingly designers are choosing the M2520 solid brass version, particularly for gravel and mulched areas. In small gardens and courtyards, it may be less easy to hide a larger spotlight with glare shield among low planting, so here I tend to use Megabay’s copper M6125 spike spotlight – in just a few weeks it weathers to a mottled brown finish which blends well with bark mulch and gravel, while its compact shape is pleasing where it is visible at the front of the border.

Where recessed lights are used to accent light individual plants, brass ones weather to an ochre colour which blends in with soil, mulch and gravel; Megabay’s Amphibian (M2021 or M2022) and Nautilus (M2500 and M2506) series being good examples, and as they are actually rated as underwater lights you can use it them boggy areas too. All of these choices are 12 volt products; if you need to use a 240 volt spotlight to illuminate individual plants where mounting a transformer can be difficult, don’t be tempted to use cheap tungsten spotlights from the DIY shop - you will get what you pay for – unreliability! Use one of the new generation of compact 240v spotlights which use controlled halogen beams instead, such as Elipta’s compact spike spot range. They have an attractive choice of finishes, as well as 12 volt options, at reasonable prices - 316 stainless steel (E4111 and E4112), copper (E4121 and E4122), black (E4131 and E4132), and a nice dark green finish (E4141 and E4142)

Don’t forget that where you have pergolas, walls, structures & trees, you can use downlights to highlight flowers more than uplighting achieves. A variety of low voltage surface mount spotlights and hanging lights are available to do this and are described in other pages concerned with downlighting onto patios and around pergolas.