Philips Hue makes it a one-two, wins Best outdoor lighting (sponsored by AEG) at T3 Awards 2019 too

Time was that Philips Hue only worked indoors, and if you ventured into your back yard, you were forced to slum it with old-fashioned, non-smart lights, often in the shape of pretend flaming torches. We know, terrible right? But at the T3 Awards 2019 we're celebrating Philips Hue Outdoor – specifically the (take a deep breath, now) Hue Lily Outdoor Colour Ambience Spot Light Set – as our Best outdoor lighting winner, sponsored by AEG.

This win could be considered for the Hue Outdoor range as a whole, since there are a lot of excellent choices to be had from it. There's accent lighting, wall lanterns, and more security-focused, but still decorative, floodlights but our current favourite is the Lily spotlight system. 

These low-voltage spots are best bought in a starter pack, which nets you three, matt-black, aluminium spot lights that are perfect for lighting up shrubs, flowers, trees and life-size statues of yourself. 

Easy to setup – if you have an outdoor power outlet, anyway – the trio of spots link together using supplied cabling with waterproof connectors – total coverage is about 25 metres in length. Then you just plunge 'em into the ground or mount them on something more rigid, and fire up your Hue app. 

From there you can choose the colour (or quality of 'white' light) and brightness of each spot, painting your garden with pastel shades, or picking out features in white. The spots output up to 600 lumens and are plenty bright enough to illuminate trees and shrubs up to about four metres in height, once dusk arrives.

Be warned, though: Hue lighting is addictive and once you get into it, you will soon find yourself adding extra Lily spots (they go for £80 each, although look out for Hue deals and, of course, cheap Hue on Amazon Prime Day), additional models from the Hue Outdoor range, and even talking to your lights, courtesy of Alexa, Siri and Google. 

• Buy for £275 from John Lewis & Partners