Albuca spiralis (Spiral albuca) [RARE] / 5 seeds per pack

Native to Western and Northern Cape Provinces, South Africa, Albuca spiralis is a bulb succulent that is very easy to grow and is especially ideal for those who tend to forget to water their plants.

This plant is especially popular among succulent lovers due to its very attractive long, narrow, dark green corkscrew leaves. Each leaf has glandular hairs which feel somewhat sticky when touched. For this reason, it’s also called slime lily. The plant becomes still more beautiful from late winter to spring, when 10 to 20 bright yellow large flowers with greenish tinge with a very pleasant vanilla-and-butter scent grow on spikes. Fruit is in the form of a capsule with black, glossy seeds.

Albuca spiralis coils up from its bulb. To grow a healthy foliage and then bloom, the bulb needs a cooling period. However, while growing it outdoors is so easy, growing it indoors is quite challenging, because it thrives more when given adequate sunlight. Under low light conditions it will produce fewer curls in its leaves. On the other hand, direct sunlight or extremely hot temperatures can burn your frizzle sizzle. Therefore, placing the plant in filtered sunlight is a good idea.

Frizzle sizzle is also fussy about water and draining requirements. Therefore, for an inexperienced person, caring for it can be challenging. Albuca spiralis takes 12 weeks to grow fully, particularly when you’ve given it the right growing conditions. Besides, it needs a minimum temperature of 60-degree F. You should remember that frizzle sizzle likes slightly warmer temperatures. However, an ideal growing season for this lovely plant is winter!

During the summer, frizzle sizzle should be watered once every 2 or 3 weeks or when the soil is completely dry. You should not forget this because this is the period when the plant is dormant.

During the winter (or as the weather starts cooling down) which is the plant’s growing period, you should water once a week or just enough t keep the soil evenly moist but not soggy.

Watching its leaves growing is a good idea in order to determine whether it’s being sufficiently watered to stay hydrated or not. If leaves are turning yellow, soft or floppy, wilting or basal collapse, it means that you’re overwatering it; so, hold the watering off and wait for the soil to dry out before the next watering. If the leaves look dry or have brown tips, drooped or stunted growth it’s a sign of underwatering. Right when you see these signs, immediately give it a good drink to keep it healthy and happy.

If you want to maintain the curl of leaves of your Frizzle sizzle, you should remember to give it enough sun exposure, not to overwater and not allow flowers to grow! Yes, leaves stop curling to make room for the flower stalks. Hence removing the flower buds as soon as they appear is good for maintaining the curl of your plant. Besides make sure it gets enough filtered sunlight and avoid overwatering.

If, however, you want your frizzle sizzle to bloom, it will bloom in the late winter to spring with stalks with drooping, creamy yellow-green flowers with the scent of vanilla and butter, which will reach around 12 to 24 inches of height and have around 10 to 20 blooms per spike. During the flowering process, the leaves will start turning brown and drying out. This is natural and you need not worry. But if you don’t like it, you should simply pinch the brown or dry tips and remove the flower stalks as soon as they emerge to prevent browning of leaves.

Frizzle sizzle can be propagated through seeds besides through bulbs. You just have to sow the seeds not deeper than twice their size, then mist some water to keep them moist (but not soggy) until they germinate. Keep the seeds in full sun to help keep them warm enough to germinate and remember to sow them within 6 months after collecting.

Albuca spiralis is virtually free from pests and diseases. But the plant loses all its leaves during summer dormancy. But as long as the bulb is healthy, the leaves grow back in winter.