Growing Echinopsis subdenudata – the Domino or Easter Lily Cactus

In Habitat

These adaptable little cacti come from South America, particularly Bolivia and maybe into Paraguay. They’re incredibly adaptable, being found in multiple biomes: grasslands, shrubland, even forests. This adaptability is what makes them so well suited to container culture and beginner mistakes: as long as they have good drainage (and sometimes, even if they don’t), they’ll carry on. 

Domino cactus vs. Echinopsis hybrids?

These are very easy to mistake for an Echinopsis hybrid, particularly the ones that produce the huge, beautiful flowers every spring. At small sizes, you’d absolutely be forgiven for mixing them up. As with many species, seedlings of Echinopsis subdenudata often have more spines than their more mature versions. 

Notably, these cacti have fuzzy areoles and very minute, almost non-existent spines. When grown on a windowsill or in partial shade, they seem to produce almost no spines at all. 

An Easter Lily or Domino cactus will reliably produce large white flowers with slender, pencil-thin necks that connect to a slightly swollen base where the seeds will develop. They seem to rarely clump, and in the years I’ve been buying and selling them wholesale, I can count on one hand the times I’ve seen a Domino cactus produce pups out of the hundreds I’ve personally sold or the thousands I’ve seen at nurseries. 

By comparison, Echinopsis hybrids selected for flower color clump almost obsessively, as soon as they possibly can. Their spines vary immensely, depending on the cultivar and crosses, and they will get quite large given the space and conditions needed to thrive. 

Before I dive into care for the little Domino cactus, I’ll show you a handful of side-by-side comparisons of a Domino vs hybrids to help you be confident in what you’re selecting. 

Two close examples of a regular Domino and a hybrid – it’s easy to see how they might be mixed up!

One way to know that the plant at the right is a hybrid and not a domino is the number of spines. Echinopsis subdenudata has between 8 and 12 ribs, fluffy areoles, and spines so small they are often hidden by the fuzzy areoles. I also find them to be “plumper” than most of the colored bloom Echinopsis hybrids, more strongly resembling a pumpkin. 

The cactus at right is one of the pups from my noble and enormous Echinopsis “LA”. It has more ribs, and the spines are visible even in the fuzzy areoles, even though the spines are small. It’s a darker, flatter green, and the ribs are very deep and pronounced. This cactus will get considerably larger, and already is in these two pictures – the cactus at left is in a 3.5″ pot, and the one at right is in a 6″ pot. 

Above you’ll see one of the few pupping Domino cacti I’ve ever seen, which was notable enough I took a photo! More specifically, look closely at the pups and then at the main plant body. The main cactus stem has almost no spines, and the characteristic pumpkin-y appearance. The pups have spines, but they’re flat, splayed, and I’d bet you $20 they lose the spines as they get larger. 

At right is a typical Echinopsis hybrid – this one is “Rainbow Bursts”, a particular favorite clone of mine. The spines here should be much more obvious compared to the first pair, and even if grown in the shade, this cactus would be far more spiny than the one at left. This hybrid does have fewer ribs than the one above (12, on my count), but the intense spines, depth of the ribs, and of course seeing the flower are all dead giveaways. This particular hybrid produces iridescent fuschia blooms that look almost neon when you see them in person. 

I’ll wrap the side by side with flowers: if the body appearance isn’t enough to give away an Echinopsis subdenudata vs. one of the many, many hybrids out there, the flowers should do the trick. 

The Easter Lily cactus (E. subdenudata) produces a white flower, with no elements of pink. They may have a bit of reddish orange in the outermost petals, especially if grown in very bright sun, but the flower itself is white through-and-through. 

Meanwhile, part of what makes the Echinopsis hybrids attractive is the absolute rainbow of colors they produce. When the flowers are very pale they can be hard to tell apart, but I’ve yet to see a hybrid that produces pure white flowers. Even in the pale hybrids, like the one pictured above, a stripe of pink will be visible. The plant above is not the same as my Echinopsis LA, but seems to be a close cousin. The LA has a more consistent pink through the flower, where this one tends to just be a stripe. 

Growing Echinopsis subdenudata

Let’s talk about how to grow these little cacti, now that you should hopefully be able to identify one at the shop. 

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Soil 

As ever, let’s start with the dirt you use. If you’ve read any of my previous posts about cacti, these soil ingredients are going to be extremely familiar. Unlike some of my harder to grow species, though, these guys don’t need it quite so inorganic. 

• 25% Pumice 
• 25% Orchid Bark 
• 50% Cactus Soil 

If you’re growing these indoors, on a windowsill, or even on a patio, using solely cactus soil out of the bag is going to give you trouble. They need more drainage, and the mild, never-changing weather of being indoors is a recipe for rot. These are super forgiving cacti, but even they have limits. 

A crucial element, as with all cacti, is drainage. They need for their roots to rapidly dry out and have aeration to expand into the soil of the pot. If you use pure soil, even if it’s labeled as being for cacti, there’s a solid chance it’s going to get compacted (if it stays too dry for too long, too often) or it’ll stay too wet, especially at the base, and rot. 

Don’t put a layer of pebbles at the bottom of your pot, and don’t pot these in a pot with no drainage hole at the bottom. The water needs to be able to run out, and without that, the cactus will just die slowly. Pebbles at the bottom of the pot doesn’t help with drainage either – all that does is decrease the depth of your pot. If that’s your goal, cool I guess? Get a shorter pot? But as far as drainage goes, all the pebbles do is create a swampy, nasty mess of moisture that is more likely to rot the roots. 

My two potted Echinopsis subdenudata in the greenhouse, after being repotted to 6″ pots in February 2023. They’re both variegated, although one more obviously so than the other. I found them randomly when picking out cacti at a wholesaler back in 2020.

If you’re growing yours outdoors in the warmer months, you may need to water more often. Nice hot days, lots of sun, and no rain? In a pot that has good drainage, you can water every week! Lots of clouds, natural storms, high humidity? Probably can water less often. 

Above are my Echinopsis subdenudata not long after I moved them into the greenhouse, showing signs of overwatering. See how the variegated plant at the bottom is pale green, almost yellow, even on the parts that should be green? 

I was keeping these on the floor of the greenhouse, shaded but still getting the heat. Being shaded (lighting is next, I promise) combined with the heat and then being watered more than they really wanted began to lead to stress responses. Etiolation symptoms include paler green coloration, and energy put into stretching – the variegated plant pictured was showing the first signs of not being quite right. Too much water, not enough sun, and viola: stressed, unhappy cactus. 

If your Echinopsis subdenudata is getting a paler green, almost yellow-hued, that’s a strong sign of stress. Most often, it’s a sign of too much “ingredients to grow” and not enough “conditions to grow”; meaning too much water or fertilizer, and not enough light and/or heat. When a cactus has too much food and not enough need to use it, they tend to get pale and overgrown. 

Luckily, I caught this early, and moved the cactus around. It was much happier in later months! 

My slightly variegated Echinopsis subdenudata when potted up. At this time (early 2021), I thought it might also be cresting based on the growth. It wasn’t; it was just very unhappy about the light exposure.