Suggestions on lighting topiaries

[Kelly]

I have a total of 6 topiaries. 2 of them are poodle topiaries that are low to the ground with 6 balls no higher than than 3 feet off the ground. Each ball origninates from a different trunk. There is a five and a half foot PVC off white fence as a background for each of these. They are in two tier raised beds done with done with stone. They are seperated by about 15 feet by crepe mertyles. The next two topiaries are of the same variety (poodle holies) but are about 12-15 balls on one single trunk about 6 feet tall. One is in the corner of the fence area and the other has the back drop of the fence. The remaing 2 topiaies are waxed leaf lugustrums. They have 3 balls on the main trunk. One has a solid stucco wall about 12- 15 feet away. I think that would be nice to shadow on that wall. The other is about 10 feet away sperated by a sidewalk that is the entrance to my house and is only about a foot away from the stucco with a window right beside it. I also have some native wild olive trees that are maturing nicely. I think it would be nice to uplight these. I have some immature oaks that I am planning on designing into the system so that as they mature I will be able to highlight them. I do appreciate your willingness to help. I have ideas but I would rather ask than make sensless mistakes.

[Kelly]

some more information that might help is that I live in the southern most part of Texas. Right on the Gulf Coast near Brownsville Texas. It freezes down here about every 10 years. I don't know it this will matter in your suggestions but thought I would give you as much information as possible. Again I do thank you for your willingness to help.

[sitelights]

Lighting effects are a function of lamp type and mounting point so you have to first decide what effect you want and then choose your equipment accordingly. I suggest that you go to my web site <www.sitelights.com> for some basic information on design and look at the DIY page for the link to amazon.com. This link will take you to a number of my book reviews on the topic of landscape lighting. I recommend the Ortho book for about $10.00 because it is cheap and has a thoroughly illustrated section on lighting techniques. The book is out-of-date in terms of hardware but it is well worth the cost. Low voltage lighting gives you the broadest choice of lamp types and the most useful lamp is the MR-16 12v 20w 60 degree from Ushio. MR-16s are available in many wattages and beam spreads but a wide low-watt beam works best. Be sure to purchase MR-16 covered lamps (i.e. a front glass bonded to the reflector to prevent degradation of the mirror coating). To get wider beam patterns than 60 degrees you will have to use a fixture with a wide angle reflector that takes a bi-pin halogen lamp. Hadco's WAML-14 has about 120 degrees of spread with a 20w bi-pin lamp to achieve a 4' wide spread with 2' between the lamp and the object being lighted. You may want to get a copy of Hadco's low voltage catalog which has photometrics (which is what I am writing about). Click on Hadco on the manufacturers page to find your nearest distributor. If the viewing angle of your topiary permits, consider lighting the fence to to place the topiary in silhouette.