Hi, I've been stalking Ellen kennon for the last two weeks. I've sent her pictures of my rooms and have been emailing back and forth ever since. She has been extremely helpful and sent me swatches of what she suggested I use. I'm really excited to use her paints. She actually sends the formula to glidden prof. paint and you pick it up there. So, it should be local for you. Glidden paints now owns ici. I did see that the ici paints uses (and incidently glidden) the same manufacturer that Fine paints of europe uses. And, I've always heard good things about the ici paints. Anyhow... In my room, I have these wonky grey green couches that I can't match anything to. And, lovely brown orangy trim to boot. She recommended mushroom, her tobacco road knockoff, sage, and several others. I really want to go with the powdered pebbles, but she didn't recommend it. I just love the color. She said mushroom would work best. It is a light beigy, greyish color that I do love (not as much as that darn powdered pebbles- the perfect taupe). And, she reformulated it so it didn't have those funky pink tones. For the gallon size, it was 52 dollars in flat. Maybe 53 in satin. I spend that for regular old BM (not aura) paint. Originally, I was planning on FPE paints, which was I think 125 per gallon. I contacted FPE for help. They have a color specialist. Though emmett was helpful, Ellen was much easier to speak with and get ideas. FPE literally has thousands of colors. Ellen only has maybe 100 to 200. Easier to deal! I'm super indecisive. So, I've been collecting paints/painting for months. I was going to hire a color consultant and pay the 200 dollar fee. Until, I saw some information on EK on here. She will help you and is really nice. I think you should seriously look into her paints or at least give her a call/send her a picture. I think it was funcolors that speaks with her/did some sort of interview with her. You might search for funcolors and see what she says.

Slone - I am also in the ABB club and have a busy counter also. I went through various stages and also needed to take a backsplash break! - I didn't want subway tiles and really wanted back painted glass. I finally figured out glass just didn't make it. I have samples from a zillion places. When I saw Chitown's backsplash - a light went off in my head. I am going with a very simple light cream crackle (Grazia Rixi Crema) with a band of accent and possibly a few medallions over the cooktop. I am going to use all 5x5 tiles - the bottom row will be straight, then a row of accent and the tiles above will be set at 45 degrees. There is a recent post (Who's backsplash is this) on the colors. I have a lot of tile samples to share with others...

While I do not grow 'Clifford's Stingray' I do have a very similar looking 'Loyalist' sport in 'Revolution' and it grows like gangbusters. It's unfortunate that it has a penchant for throwing green sports but having said that, they actually are quite nice in their own right, nice rounded leaves and upright growing habit and is also very vigorous and quite striking, just not as flashy. I have quite a few members of the Hyacinthina family and in general have found them to be quite vigorous. That said, I periodically have issues with this family being prone to root and crown rot if the growing medium isn't to their liking (most of mine are in pots) I transplanted a couple of 'Hanky Panky' this morning that were just eking along and gave them a loser, better aerated mix and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a full recovery. My 'Revolution' is getting too big for where it is so it will go under the knife, again, along with 'Gold Standard', 'Risky Business' and 'Albopicta', all Hyacinthina family members and all quite vigorous. If you had bad luck with this variety and are tempted to put something else in it's spot in the garden you might want to consider looking outside this family.... Pieter

You need new lighting before anything. Get LEDS in daylight color so anything from 3500 - 5000 k will make your colors look the same at night as they do in the daylight. Your yellow cast lighting is waht is wrong.