Tessera

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵

@davidleegardens.bsky.social

Plant grower & propagator • Digital Experience Builder Orchids • Succulents • Houseplants • Xeriscaping • Vegetables • Philosophy • History 📍Inland East Bay, CA • Zone 9b, hot-summer Mediterranean 🏳️‍🌈He/him (more or less💁‍♂️)

2604 Posts1181 Follower 331 Folgt

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 6d ago

My garden’s pest control team is small but mighty. 🕷️

Close-up of a black jumping spider gripping a yellow-and-black wasp on a Euphorbia stem. The spider has fuzzy legs, glossy eyes, brilliant metallic-green mouthparts, and a white marking on its abdomen. Photo taken in my garden in July, 2026

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last wk.

🚨 PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT 🚨 For those of us who keep Thanksgiving or Christmas cacti, October is the time to start easing up on watering to help encourage winter blooms. 🌺

A large Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata) cascading from a pot and covered in bright red blooms in front of a window. This is my plant in bloom last winter.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last wk.

Garden art from another century. I love how ordinary vegetables were treated like treasures. 🥬🍅

James Peale, Still Life: Balsam Apple and Vegetables, ca. 1820s, oil on canvas. A richly detailed arrangement of garden produce. The vegetables are, from left to right, okra, blue-green cabbage, crinkly Savoy cabbage, Hubbard squash, eggplant, balsam apple, tomatoes, and purple-red cabbage. Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last wk.

Hello to my favorite people. I brought you a rose 🌹

My hand holds a large, deep red rose in bloom, surrounded by green garden foliage.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last wk.

New to me, and it’s gorgeous. ‘Kura Kura’ Labisia gets its name from kura-kura, the Malay and Indonesian word for turtle or tortoise. 🐢

I hold a potted plant in a nursery. The plant has gorgeous leaves reminiscent of a turtle shell. I love plants with beautiful leaves like this, but it is one that I resisted buying.

Zack🥀@zackrose2.bsky.social · 2w ago

Cape Sundew caught third fly without me noticing! Kudos! 🌱

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 2w ago

A few cactus blooms from around the garden today 🌵

Emilie @emiliephillips.bsky.social · 2w ago

Hookers Orchid Cactus Bloom

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 2w ago

🌱 Plants I resisted Love the color of these marigolds. So much redder than the typical orange or yellow. They’d be perfect in a fall arrangement.

A shelf of Marigold’s at a garden center. The Marigold’s pictured are much redder shade than you typically see. I really liked them, but I resisted buying 😅

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 2w ago

I love when little mushrooms randomly pop up in my terrariums 🍄

Close-up of a few mushrooms in one of my terrariums. Moss is growing all around, and there is a bit of a red bromeliad in the background. The mushrooms are growing out of a piece of wood that cannot be clearly seen due to all of the moss.

Farther back view of the same mushrooms. You can now see all of the Crypthanthus (Earth Star) bromeliad. you can also see Jewel orchids, and lots of moss.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 2w ago

Well, at least someone got to enjoy my butter lettuce. 😒 #VegetableGardening

My hand holds several small green caterpillars above a tray of heavily chewed butter lettuce seedlings I started from seed. Much of the foliage has been eaten down to narrow strips, with other vegetable seedlings visible in the tray.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 2w ago

Violet violets. #BloomScrolling #PlantSky #Houseplants

A few blooming African violets with violet colored blooms. The one in the back left with the white edging on the flowers is “edge of darkness”, and the other two are “EK wild orchid“.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 2w ago

The flowers from earlier this season have turned into fruit. 🌸

Several Lophophora growing together in a yellow rectangular pot, surrounded by other potted cacti. A number of the Lophophora have small bright pink fruits emerging from their woolly centers, produced from flowers earlier in the season. The fruits will be collected later for their seeds.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 4mo ago

A few blooms from the #cactus collection today. #PlantSky #BloomScrolling

A group of potted cacti from the genera Lophophora, Echinopsis, Astrophytum, and Matucana from my private collection. A large white Echinopsis flower rises above, while several round Lophophora cacti in a yellow planter have small pink flowers.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 2w ago

Good morning, Bluesky!

I woke this morning up to find this cactus flower had opened overnight 🌸

makybutters.bsky.social @makybutters.bsky.social · 2w ago

#echeveriaLipstickAgavoides #AgavoidesLipstick

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 3w ago

Potting Up Cactus Seedlings | Demonstration + Timelapse

ames @amsrbb.bsky.social · 3w ago

Pineapple tomatoes almost make me believe in a benevolent God. (@davidleegardens.bsky.social)

Two big tomatoes held in hand. They are orange with red streaks

One of the tomatoes sliced in three parts. The inside is orange with red webbing.

Brucshetta: the orange tomato with red webbing on a slice of bread, with cheese and garlic, broiled

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 3w ago

Bad hair day 🌵

Young columnar cactus covered in a wild tangle of long, fine white hairs and bright orange spines, giving it the appearance of having a very bad hair day. It grows in my garden surrounded by other cacti and succulents. “Old man” style cactus from the genus Oreocereus.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 3w ago

Red Teeth

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 3w ago

This is worth repeating: AI won’t be responsible for killing us. The people building and deploying it will be. If AI causes harm, the people responsible should be held accountable.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 4w ago

I can’t believe how much these bloom stalks have developed in just a few days. 🌱

Yucca ‘Bright Star’ in bloom, with a tall stalk of creamy white flowers above the variegated yellow and green leaves.

Agave striata front and center with a dark reddish flower stalk emerging from the center. It’s grown surprisingly fast over the last few days.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 4w ago

I posted a longer-format garden tour over on YouTube 🌿 Check it out if you’d like to see how my Northern California garden is doing at the end of summer. m.youtube.com/watch?v=99J4...

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 4w ago

Those little forked cotyledons are a giveaway: California poppy 🌱

Close-up of a tiny California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) seedling emerging from dark soil. The two long, narrow cotyledons have the distinctive split, forked tips that make young California poppies easy to recognize. I had one pop up on its own in a pot. They will soon be popping up everywhere when our winter rains come.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · 4w ago

I posted a longer-format garden tour over on YouTube 🌿 Check it out if you’d like to see how my Northern California garden is doing at the end of summer. m.youtube.com/watch?v=99J4...

September Garden Tour 2026 | Northern California Cacti, Succulents & More.

YouTube video by David Lee

m.youtube.com

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last mo.

Nighttime view of the garden, looking up. 🌙

A nighttime view looking up through a tall variegated Euphorbia ammak, its pale ribbed stems illuminated against a dark, cloud-filled sky.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last mo.

Oh no, I have caterpillars! What should I do??? 😩🐛

Just kidding! This is a monarch caterpillar (Danaus plexippus) feeding on narrowleaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis) in my garden. I planted this native milkweed specifically to attract and support monarchs, so finding this big, healthy caterpillar on it is exactly what I was hoping for. The caterpillar is striped black, white, and yellow and is clinging vertically to a milkweed stem against a clear blue sky.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last mo.

Adding another #cactus flower to everyone’s #BloomScrolling

Close-up of a vivid red flower on a Cleistocactus cactus, with layered pointed petals and a dark magenta-purple center. An unopened red bud extends to the right from a slender green stem covered in pale golden spines, against a softly blurred garden background.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last mo.

I was today years old when I realized that Cindy is a hypocorism of Cinderella. I also learned the word hypocorism 😅

Cinderella's Magical Gown Transformation

Alt: Cinderella's Magical Gown Transformation gif. I’ve heard of the name a Cinderella entirely because of the character pictured here. I’ve also heard the name Cindy, but I never thought that Cindy was a shortening (or hypocorism) of Cinderella. Of course it makes total sense, but it had never occurred to me until today.

static.klipy.com

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last mo.

This is bullshit. I hear MapQuest hasn’t folded, but Apple and Google have.

Screenshot from my Apple phone showing “Lake America” instead of Lake Ontario.

𝐃𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐝 𝐋𝐞𝐞 🌵@davidleegardens.bsky.social · last mo.

Not the best photo, but I had to capture it! My Arthrocereus rondonianus, which I grew from seed, bloomed for the first time last night. Such an uncommon cactus with a surprisingly beautiful flower.

Arthrocereus rondonianus cactus blooming at night. A slender, spiny green stem bears a magenta-pink flower surrounded by narrow yellow-green outer petals. This plant was grown from seed and is flowering for the first time. This is an uncommon cactus that I never see referenced anywhere that I happen to come across seeds many years ago. It’s endemic to Brazil, particularly Minas Gerais, where it is associated with the campo rupestre (“rock fields”) vegetation of the Brazilian highlands.

These aren’t hot lowland deserts. They’re generally high-elevation, exposed rocky landscapes with very free-draining, nutrient-poor substrates.y

Terpy Ten @terpyten.bsky.social · last mo.

I finally got it!! No lines, no discoloration. What a challenge for this few second video. I hope you enjoy the hard work. #timelapse #photography #cactus #flower #stunday #bloomscrolling #cacti #blooming