I did use roundup near the iris, so I think that's what happened. I'll mark them and leave them in place and hope that next year they're back to normal. I had an allergic reaction to bees and had to simplify my garden and have lots of the dense stuff removed so that I can see the bees. Like the one on the iris. Thus some rather extensive use of roundup on the leftovers of invasive stuff. Thanks everyone for your comments. I was afraid it might be some kind of disease that would spread. Janet

Plants will often revert to another color/form as recessive genes express themselves. This is very common in seed-grown hybrids. If your plant is self-seeding it is probably doing this. Linda

By exterior waterproofing, do you mean checking the drainage around the house? I was referring to measures taken on the exterior of the foundation. But, of course, diverting water well away from the foundation should help too. That could mean regrading. And the often overlooked movement of downspout water far away from the foundation--not just a couple of feet away on a splashpad. I also wonder too if the act of lowering the basement significantly increased the risk. Oh yes! The worst I ever personally saw was when renovators lowered a basement in a century home by less than two feet. Water started pouring in and before they could find and install heavy duty sump pumps, there was five feet of water in the basement. They had hit one of the many underground streams in a city (Toronto) basically built between two rivers running into Lake Ontario.

Thanks for the comments. I'll try a glossier finish next time and see if I like it--don't want to mess with oil. I've always used a flat paint and had good results BUT the paint and glaze were always both Behr. Now I'm wondering if something very basic was the problem--the weather. Maybe I tried doing this in weather that was just too warm. The room was not air-conditioned, and it's hot here in the summer. Witness how melted my brain must have been if I expected to work paint in a 70-80 degree room! It's cool here today, so I'm going to see if my weather theory is the right one. I'm guessing that it is. Still haven't figured out about the color, though. It just seems to be on that one wall--elsewhere the tone of the glaze is quite nice. I did prime the other walls--getting good coverage with cream over an aqua blue is not easy. Think I'm going to stick to Behr for faux finishing, though, or maybe try BM.