Garden Project : Bellflower Path Lighting

The weather and my schedule finally cooperated, so I was able to assemble all 6 of my new Bellflower path lights, and set them out in the new garden area. I have yet to set out the 3 spot lights I bought from CSN Lighting.com also. Then I need to buy the transformer and low voltage cable, to connect these up. But in the meantime, I am already enjoying the lights, even when not lit up.

Ever since I placed the first light in the garden one month ago, I can't get enough of visiting and looking at them, and taking photos. While most of the garden is just starting to wake up, these beauties are already in "full bloom". Here is one of the lights, with a white bleeding heart (Dicentra spectabilis "alba") in front, and a couple of peonies pushing up on either side (not to mention some horsetails - also taking advantage of the newly cleared area!).

Normally, I would choose simple black fixtures, and I was unsure about this "Antique Brick" colour. (The other option would have been "Patina Green".) But I have come to really love the colour. The colour is reminiscent of well-seasoned rusted wrought iron, and the rough texture creates that feeling too. It blends really naturally with the soil, and constrasts nicely with the pretty frosted & fluted glass, which glows nicely when the sun hits it. I can't wait until these little beauties each glow with 10W halogen light at night.  I think the effect will be very romantic.

I can easily admire the 6 bellflower lights from the house:

They show really nicely, rising above the new flagstone path.  I can't wait until the peonies and other perennials grow up around the outside of the path, and see how the foliage will fill in around the lights.  Here are a few more views from the upper yard:

In the photos, you may be able to make out my new weeping cherry in the center of the circle, behind the bench.  The tag near the top of the tree is visible, if not the branches.  Next year it should be in full white bloom by now, but being fresh from the nursery, the blooms will be delayed, maybe even absent, this year.

With the 3 matching Antique Brick spotlights I also bought from CSN Lighting.com, I plan to shine one on this new weeping cherry, and the other two on my sweet gum and coral bark maple trees, which are outside the path opposite the bench (somewhat visible from the first of these three photos).  We'll see how that looks when they're all connected up.  The lights each come with a quick-connect connector, so it should be easy to run a low-voltage cable out there, try out the configuration, and move them around until I'm happy with the lighting, and then bury the cable (close to the path, so I won't as likely dig it up) when it's just right.  I can't wait.