The suggestion that blue could be produced by selecting using crosses of 'bluish' eyed plants with 'near-whites' was made quite some time ago. I think hybridizers who tried that strategy were not successful. A reasonable strategy is to select as parents plants with the most 'bluish' flower colours and cross them together. If one has only one such plant then crossing it to a near-white is reasonable, but then so would be crossing it to a lavender or perhaps even a pink or dark bluish-purple. There is no easy wasy to get bluish daylilies except to select generation after generation for more blue in the flowers. There is an idea tha if one can produce a 'bluish' eyed plant then one could select parents so that the eye came to cover the whole petal. I think that will be difficult as the petal in most plants, including daylilies, has two slightly different parts (lower half versus upper half - not top versus bottom of the petal). The different parts are important for developing the flower and for what happens when the flower bud opens and the petals expand. Eyes typically do not extend much past the half-way point on petals and may be linked to the differences in the two petal parts. If one was to breed for petals that were all eyes one could do that by keeping the size of the petal large and selecting for wider eyes and smaller petal remainder while maintaining the petal length. Or one could reduce the size of the petal so that it was only eye. In that case one would select for smaller petal remainder while maintaining the eye width (selecting for shorter petals that were all eye). The two strategies are not necessarily genetically equivalent. Maurice

When it comes to your plantings, I'd tour some local gardens. If you are near a major city, a botanical garden, or if nothing else available that fits within your time constraints, you'll often find better nurseries have display gardens. If there is a landscape architect in your area, you might even find paying for an hour or two of his/her time for a few suggestions if not an actual plan is worth your investment. You can do the work yourself after getting sound, studied ideas. A tree, especially something as potentially large and long lived as an oak in the front is a lifetime commitment, your life and likely a few of the next generations. You want to be sure you will appreciate its shade, leaf litter, roots in the lawn. I'm not wild about the idea of much besides simple evergreens close to the house, at some point that house will need maintenance and you don't want plantings in the way and to stress over. The biggest mistake I made with the gardens in my first home was perennial beds bordering the house - there is no way a contractor doing assigned work can adequately protect them. As for hydrangeas, I love them but not immediately at the front door for their bare deciduous stems to be front and center all winter, only full and lush in Spring and Summer. Homework, research for your specific climate, it will pay off in the long term...

Ok now we have something to talk about. First the crane flies will die soon and not return until next March. The more of them you have in your house the fewer there are laying eggs in your garden, so...just sayin'. Personally I ignore them and let them die where they die. My daughter, on the other hand, wants to move away when she sees a bug in the house. So I have to put up with her screaming. She's graduating this year, so she'll soon be gone. Mosquitoes are an issue. They breed in ANY body of water. They can breed in the cut off tops of bamboo, inside a coiled hose with water in it, any pond or bucket of water, rain gutters that are blocked or do not fully drain, or anything else that holds water. Drain everything you have control over and encourage your neighbors to drain anything that might hold water. If you have to leave a dog watering bowl out, we went with a 5-gallon bucket and put a piece of mosquito dunk in it. Those dunks really work to prevent mosquitoes as well as helping to keep the bucket clean from mold. I'm a little ahead of you with raking oak leaves. We're getting to the tassle stage so looking forward to no more raking. Watering, mowing, and fertilizing will work. You don't need a catalog of lawn care products to shop with. But you do have "clover" and dollar weed to deal with. Both of those pull out extremely easily if you catch them early. If you have real clover, then it doesn't but the oxalis/black medic with the yellow flowers does pull out easily. Or you could try the blue bottle spray pictured above. Just spot spray first to see if your St Aug dies. It can be sensitive to some weed killers and amazingly tolerant of others. If it survives a week without browning out, then you likely don't have Floratam St Aug. If you have floratam, then you have to go with the black bottle and purple label stuff. Read the label very carefully if you have to use that. The label says not to walk through it so you have to go backwards and end up at the faucet to turn the hose off. Then you're likely stuck there, so plan your spray route. Also you can only use is once or twice a year. Choose your time carefully. Be sure you have all the weeds up and growing - then blast them. The killing effect takes several weeks, so be patient. Spraying again soon after the first spray is a waste of time, money, and is against the lawn of the label. Spot spray as much as you can to just kill the weeds in the immediate good turf. Then let the St Aug spread. Repeat next year. General St Aug care...Water deeply and infrequently. This is the same for all grass. Deeply means 1 full inch every time you water. Infrequently means no more than once per week with temps in the 90s. That means ALL SUMMER. If you get temps in the 100s with low humidity, then water every 5 days. Infrequently also means once every 2 weeks with temps in the 80s. You're not there yet. It means once every 3 weeks with temps in the 70s. That's about where you are now. If it rains, delay watering until the grass looks like it's getting dry. Mulch mow every week when the grass starts growing. ALWAYS mow at the mower's highest setting. ALWAYS. There is never any reason to mow St Aug lower than the highest setting. Weld your mower at the highest setting so your spouse or neighbor kid doesn't try to do you a favor and mow it low. Fertilize three times a year with synthetic if you want to use synthetic. First would be Memorial Day, then Labor Day, then Thanksgiving. If you want to use organic fertilizer, then you can do that any time. If you go with organics, don't listen to the Dirt Doctor from Dallas. He has good organic intentions, but he will sell you waaaaaayyyy more stuff than you really need. He's a salesman and pushes product. All you need is a bag of corn meal, corn gluten meal, or alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). If you're doing organics right it will be inexpensive, easy, and like autopilot. If you listen to the DD, he'll have you at the nursery every weekend picking up some formulation of compost tea, molasses, or whatnot. You don't need it. That's all there is to it. If you want the nicest lawn on the block, or if you're having problems with getting the green color you want, then get your soil tested at Logan Labs in Ohio. Forget about TAMU tests. The $25 test at LL is much better than $50 worth of testing at TAMU. The simple tests at TAMU are comparatively unhelpful. Read some of the soil test threads here at this forum and check out the type of reply they get from morpheuspa. He's a soil test genius and will grace you with the benefit of his knowledge for the price of admission - free.

I live in an old farmhouse. One traditional farmhouse planting both here and in OH where I grew up is a row of sugar maples along the road. What do you have in the way of outside living spaces around the house such as patios or porches? What do you see from windows? One of my favorite gardens is just outside the kitchen window, and has a flowering tree, a bunch of low-care flowering plants, shrubs, and clematis. I love looking at the birds and flowers as I pour my morning coffee, prep meals, or do dishes. I would focus on planting areas where you will see it daily and enjoy the birds and insects attracted to what you've planted. Some traditional farmhouse plants include roses (there are low-care roses available), Hydrangeas, daylilies, lilacs, and daffodils along with herbs for cooking but you can choose plants to suit your taste. I'd keep things simple, with fewer varieties, and interesting foliage that has pops of color from flowers as highlights rather than as the main show.