The system includes an appliance provided to illuminate a container (6) holding plants (7). Above the container a lamp fitting is provided for a lamp (8) operated with a heat producing ballast choke (10) which is placed under the container. The choke can be coupled to a heat distribution plate which can be a water filled trough and the distance between plate and lamp fitting can be variable. The lamp can be a high pressure, a fluorescent, a halogen or sodium lamp and a transformer can replace the ballast choke.
