The right lighting in a garden can add a touch of elegance and class to any home or business but it’s often a shame that none of this is visible when the sun goes down. It’s especially the case if you live in a climate where palm trees thrive. People love palm trees because they remind us of vacations in beautiful climates. Imagine now, adding the right lighting to your palm trees so that your beautiful resort-style garden goes from quaint during the day to gorgeous at night.
Take a look at these palm tree lighting ideas that are easy to implement and provide the perfect setting for these majestic trees.
Accentuate The Trunk
The trunk of a palm tree is unique. Instead of having internal rings that can show the age of a tree, many palm tree trunks appear to have been stacked with a collection of rings. However, those rings are formed as the palm grows and each ring shows where the leaves or fronds were. As the tree grows, the fronds fall away and new circular vessels are formed with new fronds. This continues until the tree finishes growing and this varies depending on the type of palm tree you have.
A trunk so unique deserves to shine during the day and the night. Installing solar landscape spotlights, one of the best lights for palm tree trunks, is a great way to accentuate the trunk of a palm tree and the light shines from the base upward to give these majestic giants an ethereal glow. You can simply add this type of lighting to the bottom of a palm tree or you can also add a ring of shiny pebbles around the light to add a little extra sparkle.
Highlight The Natural Shape Of Palm Trees
There is something almost magical about the shape of palm trees. The trunks stand proudly upward while the leaves or fronds fan out like a protective umbrella. This shape is not only pleasing to the eye during the day but also at night. Instead of haphazardly adding lights to palm trees, install lighting to the natural shape of the tree. Rope light is another one of the best lights for palm tree trunks because of its flexibility.
Using rope lights or fairy lights, which are quite similar in design, wrap around the palm tree to create a luminescent trunk. If you go the extra mile and use smart fairy lights, then you can control the lights from your smartphone. This means you can really set the stage with a color and light show with the palm tree being the star of the show.
Create A Canopy Of Light
The fronds or leaves are the highlights of the palm tree as they grandly stretch out looking spectacular. These fronds are almost like a blank canvas just begging for a little adornment. Fairy lights can definitely dress up a palm tree by creating a luminous canopy.
There are a few different ways you can install fairy lights on the fronds of a palm tree. You can stretch the lights along the thick middles of the fronds simply pointing outwards like the fronds themselves, or you can weave this type of lighting from frond to frond to resemble a spider’s web. Add a few lanterns at strategic points, set up a small table and a few chairs and you have a romantic oasis where you can enjoy fine wine and great company.
From The Ground Up
Transform your palm trees into garden celebrities with solar uplights. These are particularly stunning if you have a row of pristine palm trees lining a pathway so you can install this type of lighting a short length from the base and direct the light upward towards the top of the trees. Even if you don’t have a neat row of trees, you can still use this type of lighting to emphasize the strength of the trunks with the fronds forming a dark silhouette above.
The solar version of uplights is even better as you don’t need to install a separate power source. Most are quite efficient at collecting solar energy during the day and will illuminate your palm trees all night. Place a few more of these lights in other areas of the garden and show off your favorite palm trees, shrubs and other features.
Unite The Palms
Solar string lights are incredibly versatile and you can use them in a variety of ways with palm trees. You can use a single length of string lights to accentuate a single palm tree or, if you have a few palm trees within close proximity to each other, unite them by installing string lights that extend from one palm tree to the next. You can get really creative with this type of lighting and form a circle of light between your palm trees or choose a central palm tree and have string lights extending from that one tree and stretching out to two or more other palm trees.
How much of this lighting you want to add and the configuration is entirely up to you. You can have a single row of lights right up at the top or have a few lengths at different heights. Best of all, there are many different colors and designs of string lights you can choose from which gives you the option of choosing a single warm glow or choosing colored lights for a festive feel.
Put Sparkly Clothes on Palm Tree Trunk
The trunk of a palm tree is always a focal point for people. Another way to decorate the palm tree is to wrap its towering trunk in a resplendent cloak of twinkling lights like a fashion designer. Net fairy lights are also considered the best lights for palm tree trunks. Their uniform pattern of lights makes the trunk look exquisite and elegant. Since they come in a net form, you don’t need to wrap around the trunk again and again. They are much easier to install.
FAQs about Palm Tree Lighting
How many lumens does it take to light a palm tree?
The main purpose of installing lighting on anything, including palm trees, is to accentuate or light up the area or object and although your main intention may not be to create the illusion of daylight under a palm tree, you still want enough light to make the trees stand out. Most of the lighting ideas for outdoors may be more tailored to creating ambient light and you’ll still want to sit under your palm trees or, at the very least, set up an area for relaxing with coffee or your favorite beverage.
As a general rule of thumb, look for the following output of lumens for your palm trees.
- Smaller palm trees – up to 200 lumens
- Mid to larger palm trees – up to 400 lumens
- Large to very tall palm trees – up to 1000 lumens
How do you put lights on a palm tree trunk?
There are a few ways you can put lights on a palm tree trunk and both will take a certain degree of patience and care. The most obvious choice is to start at the base of the trunk and wind the lights in a tight spiral around the trunk until you get to the desired height, which is usually just under the fronds. You can decide how far apart you want the lights to spiral upward.
Another way to put lights on the trunk of a palm tree is to, again, start at the base and take the length of lights directly upward in a straight line. This method will also require pins at intervals to keep the strand of rope or string lights in place.
While these methods involve starting the installation of the lights from the base of the palm tree trunk, in some cases, you may be able to start at the top. This is usually most effective if the palm tree is close to the house or another building so that you can connect the lights to a power source in the building and extend it to the top of the trunk, just beneath the fronds. You can then choose to wind the lights in a spiral configuration downward, extend them in a straight line and secure the strands with clips or even just drape the lights from the top of the trunk and let them hang down.
