We’ve had a tiny round cactus plant at home for about five years or so now. I think it probably came home with us as one of a pack of tiny cacti from Ikea. I’ve never really bothered with it and it normally sits, out of the way, on a book shelf, at the back of the kitchen. It’s in a really good warm, light position.

From time to time the cactus would develop small black hairy tufts on its flesh but they wouldn’t amount to much and then just drop off. However, a few days ago it grew to hairy spikes, that started out as the familiar tufts, after I’d given it a good long soak in a bowl of water. Strange I thought, it might be about to flower but really didn’t think any more of it.

Then wow! I checked the Cactus this morning to find these two fantastic flower heads on the end of the hairy stalks. We then did our research and discovered our small spikey plant was an Easter Lily or Domino Cactus. The bad news was that the blooms normally fade within twelve hours. We were lucky to catch them in the morning though as normally it blooms during the night and then fades before people realise it’s in flower.

We’ve been out all day today and came home to find our bloom was over. The good news is that they can flower more than once a year. Fingers crossed we’ll get another bloom before the summers over. Here’s are some links for more flower pics at Floral Friday and FOTD

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All images: ©Stephen Hyde 2007-2025 – All rights reserved.