I did also darken the silver tree trunks, thankfully they are no longer shining like radioactive under the darker leaves.
Thanks for all the positive comments, esp from this tough audience!! It's quite difficult to make "global" changes in scenery that don't make CloD look worse over-all. If I can do one incremental change like this with acceptable results, I'll take that as a 'win' and rest on my laurels, and beta test other guys' landscape mods from now on