Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you all well. This has been the weirdest Fall I can remember. I finally had to bring the potted plants inside on the 28th. I haven’t had an “F” yet, but a friend of mine said there has been in lower lying areas around where he lives.

The photo above is from the National Weather Service for Windsor, MO. That changed from a few days ago when they were predicting rain and even snow several days this week. Now it says mostly clear and sunny with temps as low as 31° F. I am sure the forecast will change. The National Weather Service says the high on Saturday will be near 58° F with a low of around 39. The Weather Channel says the high will be 63° with a low of 45. Hmmm… I guess you can take your pick but we will just have to wait to see what happens. No matter, the sun is much better than rain and snow.

The leaves on the old maple tree in “the other yad” didn’t change to their beautiful orange glow. Instead, they are turning kind to a yellowish-orange color then brown before falling off.

The maple on the north side of the front yard is still completely green while the one on the south side is about 1/4 reddish.

The two on the south side are beginning to change color…

Even the Colocasia esculenta have been enjoying the mild temps. The Alocasia are now in the basement…

The first flower on the Stapelia gigantea lasted four or five days. The second one opened on October 30, and the third on November 1. It is inside now and I haven’t noticed such a terrible odor. It just smells somewhat gassy although I haven’t bent down to take a whiff. I am not doing that again…

SO, on October 28, I photographed and measured the cactus on the back porch as I moved them inside for the winter. That means I will be posting about their progress.

I continue to make updates on the plant pages, adding photos I took over the summer and adding new pages. Not so many names have changed in 2021 compared to before. Plants of the World Online by Kew continually make updates sometimes I send the senior editor an email when I see something whacky. Their staff works very hard to keep everything updated and I am sure that is no easy task and very frustrating at times. Right now, they are still working on their synonyms, so some species pages are way off from before. As a result, I can’t update the synonyms list on some of my plant pages. I am close to finishing the species of the family Asteraceae. I have been working on the Asteraceae page for at least two weeks… Well, I got this whacky idea a while back to make updates by family instead of alphabetical order. I wanted to spruce up the family pages with photos and links to each species page. That has proved to be quite a process as I update each species and add new pages in the process. The Asteraceae page is the biggest so far which will have 54 species linked when it is finished… You can check it out to see what you think. I appreciate other people’s opinions. I still haven’t added a top photo because I haven’t decided which one to use… The page is almost finished with only 3-4 more species to add.

Until next time, when I start posting the cactus updates, be safe, stay positive, and always be thankful.