Bring a touch of RHS Glow to your garden

British winter nights are long, and although this can be seen as time to rest, recuperate and snuggle up indoors, being able to enjoy our gardens and move through them safely often requires some lighting. The designers of the RHS Glow light installations at the RHS Gardens for the last two years, SLX, a B Corp production and technical solution provider, share their top tips on what, where and how to get the look.

• Try to use outdoor lighting for short periods only, to reduce the impact on local wildlife

Tips for creating your own light installation

Light up special features in your garden

Festive balls of fire

Join two hanging baskets together using floristry wire or garden twine

Twine is a soft, fine loosely woven string treated with preservatives for outdoor use. Used for tying in climbers and other plants to supports.

and wrap with outdoor battery-powered fairy lights or micro-wire lights. Weave into the frame or use more twine or wire to attach greenery like holly and ivy or willow and other flexible dry material around the ball, leaving spaces for the lights to shine through. Either hang them using a chain or strong wire, or place on shepherd’s crooks to line a path.

Garden lighting: effects on wildlife

Willow and wire balls can be filled with lights and decorated with greenery

Create living galleries

Bring the art gallery outdoors. Build a light frame, where people can take selfies or group pictures. This would work really well for a community setting amongst evergreens. Attach outside lights around a simple box or wire frame and add greenery for that finishing touch.

Light up a frame to bring some fun to your community event

Frame a view

What may seem dull by day can look stunning at night. Lighting enhances textures and shapes, so choose interesting plant shapes or garden features such as pots, pergolas and other structures or specimen trees and play with lighting colours to find what works best to make it stand out. Make lead-lines that draw your eye into the garden space using path lights.

Colourful and playful framing at RHS Bridgewater

Shades of light

Try to use warm white rather than cold white, everything just looks better and creates more of a homely glow. Amber also works really well. Play with either harmonising colours, that sit next to each other on the colour wheel such as red and gold or contrasting colours like gold and blue for a vibrant look. Leaf colours respond differently to each other with light – an oak tree, for example, responds well to green and blue, magenta and amber, whereas if you shine red light on an evergreen leaf, it just tends to look black.

Pick your favourite colours and play with colour combinations

Fairy jars

Fill Kilner jars or other clear containers with fairy lights, such a simple but pretty idea that works well as path lights, on either side of a door, hung on a balcony or to line a flight of steps, making it perfect for every size of space.

Electricity in the garden

Fill glass jars with twinkling lights for a little fairy magic

Stunning silhouettes

Deciduous

Deciduous refers to plants (mainly trees and shrubs) that lose their leaves seasonally, usually during autumn. This is a natural process triggered by the season's shorter days and lower temperatures and allows plants to conserve energy during the winter months.

trees and shrubs have beautiful skeletal structures, which can be enhanced using lighting, to really bring out the form. Play with the shadows that are created by keeping the lights closer to the trunk to enhance the structural form of the tree. Evergreens, however, take shades of green, cyan and pure white light really well. Position the light further away from the tree to catch the full height of the tree.

Play with light colours and distances for the best effect

“Look out for some surprises at the RHS Gardens this year. At RHS Rosemoor the trail will pass under the road into the upper garden for the first time, RHS Wisley has a new watery wonder, and at a few gardens we are creating a new exciting interactive installation with giant petunias, which change colour and sounds when you touch them. It’s all about creating a journey of discovery,” says Alex Keighley, Lighting Designer for RHS Glow at SLX.

Come and see how it’s done at RHS Glow

See for yourself how the experts create magic at RHS Glow this winter. Dates vary at each of the five RHS Gardens, from November to January. Grab a mulled wine, bring your friends and family and enjoy the BEST night out of the season.

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Festive shopping at RHS Plants

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