Are you considering adding an Albuca Spiralis, also referred to as a Frizzle Sizzle or a Corkscrew Albuca, to your household?
The comprehensive guide below will show you how to care for this perennial succulent in your home correctly and even how to propagate it.
The maintenance of this plant is on the more accessible side, so don’t worry if you are relatively new to gardening but want amazing-looking plants in your garden!
What Is Albuca Spiralis?
Albuca Sprialis is a bulbous plant. It can grow up to 8-24 inches tall and is adorned with a velvety look alongside the leaves, thanks to the coarse hairs running alongside them.
The leaves are distinctive because they are long and narrow and have a spiral tip. They are thick and tightly curled, and in the late winter to springtime, the aptly nicknamed frizzle sizzle shows off the beauty of green and yellow laced flowers on top of flower spikes.
It can be challenging to fully grow Albuca Spiralis indoors because of the constant indirect sunlight they need, but if you can keep the right conditions in play, you will witness a beautiful site each season!
The flowers themselves give off a pleasing fragrance that is quite enjoyable and recounts the smell of a mix of butter and vanilla. Albuca Spiralis love the sun.
Although they become dormant in the summer and grow during the winter.
Other common nicknames of Albuca Spiralis include:
- Corkscrew Albuca
- Spiral Leaved Albuca
- Spiral Albuca
- Slime Lily
- Helicopter Plant
- Curly Albuca
- Sticky Corkscrew Lily
Along with that, Albuca Spiralis’s scientific classification put them in the Asparagaceae family with the subfamily Scilloidea. Albuca Spiralias belongs to the genus of Albuca as well as hundreds of other species.
When adding this plant to your collection, you will enjoy the fact that this is a pest disease-free plant.
Caring for an Albuca Spiralis Plant Properly
Proper care for the lovely Albuca Spiralis is relatively easy. Albuca Spiralis does best indoors with lots of sunlight.
The more sunlight, the curlier the leaves get. An ideal window location would be around the south-facing area of the home.
Ensure there is some slight shade, and the plant will be away from heaters, radiators, or windows. Direct sunlight or too much heat will burn the plant, making sure plenty of filtered sunlight and the proper temperature.
When the plant has prolific growth during the winter, you will want to water it enough to keep the soil moist. Be careful not to overwater it during the winter months to ensure no rotting in the bulbs.
Essentially you will want to let the soil dry before watering it again. If the leaves of the plant don’t curl, it’s generally a sign of overwatering.
Using a soil mix made for succulent plants for proper drainage is ideal. With the appropriate soil and watering it weekly, the Albuca Spiralis will continue to be healthy and grow.
Including a well-balanced liquid fertilizer for food will complement the growth of the plant and its bulbs. Make sure before you feed the liquid fertilizer that the soil is a little wet.
Alternatively, in the summer, barely water it if at all, so the soil remains dry.
Keeping an Albuca Spiralis’s temperature around 65 degrees Fahrenheit is ideal. Even though they are a winter plant, they don’t withstand cold temperatures.
They also can’t handle high temperatures, so you will want to make sure you keep it around the 65-degree mark.
At times you may need to lower this temperature to around 55 degrees for more viable seeds for propagation.
Another point to watch is humidity. Albuca Spiralis can handle most humidity, barring high humidity.
Installing a humidifier in your home garden area will help you know the humidity and adjust accordingly. Having this option gives you the choice of propagation with seeds or not each season the plant goes between cycles.
How to Propagate Albuca Spiralis Successfully
How to propagate Albuca Spiralis properly is unlike other succulents. Leaf or stem cutting isn’t the path to take for this one. Albuca Spiralis needs to be separated at the bulb to propagate successfully.
Before separation, make sure the section you’re working on is rooted.
Another way you can propagate Albuca Spiralis is with the seeds.
If you want to propagate with seeds, they will grow best between the autumn and winter months.
Plant the seeds in moist soil made of perlite and peat and cover them with a plastic bag for retention.
Seeds will germinate in about a week after planting. Sow the seeds and prepare them for growth for the same time when Albuca Spiralis comes out of its dormancy.
Keep Albuca Spiralis in clay pots for better growth. These also have great irrigation built into the clay pot itself. You won’t need to worry about repotting until about the three-year mark.
The pot-bound roots during the first 1-3 years provide plenty of stimulation for blooming periods.
At the end of the second year of summer (getting ready to go into the third winter), repot the flower into the next pot size up. Each time you repot Albuca Spiralis, you only need to go up one level in size.
Below is a summary of the step-by-step process to propagate Albuca Spiralis.
- Split the offsets away from the parent plant to grow separately.
- The plant won’t always have offsets, so seeds are the primary way to propagate.
- The germination process starts one week after sowing.
- The perfect time to plant the seeds is when the parent plant begins resprouting.
- The quality of the seeds lasts about six months, so plant the seeds quickly.
- After planting, ensure the seeds are moist and in a warm location under indirect light.
- The plants grown from seeds may look different from the parent plant after a duration. If that happens, it is natural.
Why Is My Albuca Spiralis Not Curling?
It can be disappointing to see the leaves not curling. One occurrence for Albuca Spiralis, not curling, is semi-random.
Some Albuca Spiralis will stop curling when the flower blooms, while some of them continue to curl. Each season could change for the same plant.
The Albuca Spiralis may have a season that blooms, and the leaves stay curled, while another season it blooms, and the leaves lose the curl.
Although this may happen randomly each season or not, if the leaves do straighten, there isn’t a way to make them curl again for that period.
The best plan of action to encourage possible curling of the leaves the next time is to allow it to enter its dormant state.
To help the dormancy of Albuca Spiralis, don’t water it during the summer at all. The leaves will die and remain with the bulb.
Don’t worry; the plant isn’t dying. It’s just the beginning of the hibernation period. Next blooming season, new leaves will grow, and a fresh start for the leaves to curl begins.
Alternatively, you can stop all risk of losing the curls of the leaves by trimming the flower bud as it grows.
Why Are the Tips of My Frizzle Sizzle Turning Brown?
The tops of Frizzle Sizzle turning brown is common. When the flowers start to come up the stalk, it causes the tips of the leaves to turn brown.
If you don’t want the browning tips to steal the limelight of the plant, they are easy to trim off with your fingers.
While this is a common occurrence, it may accelerate by a lack of proper watering. Maintaining once a week, depending on the dryness of the soil, will help stop the acceleration.
As the plant focuses on growth, the tips will turn brown using all its nutrients.
Proper fertilizer and removing the stalks the bulbs sit on as they begin to grow will stop the browning from occurring.
Should I Let My Frizzle Sizzle Flower?
One reason why you should let your Frizzle Sizzle flower is the delicious aroma of vanilla and butter the leaves give off. It smells fresh and sweet all at the same time.
You could close your eyes and imagine stepping into a bakery with freshly made pastries all around you when you let the ambrosial scent take hold of you.
The flowers are gorgeous and resemble little snowdrops with green insides and yellow siding on the bulbs. The three outer petals with green and yellow surround the brightly colored bell-shaped center.
When you combine the beauty with the unmatched smell of the perfect dessert, there is plenty of reason to let your Frizzle Sizzle flower.
Where to Buy Albuca Spiralis
Get your own Albuca Spiralis, and others like it! Enjoy the wonderful home garden of succulents and fun, beautiful plants surrounding you.
The ambrosial scents, gorgeous colors, and unique-looking flowers for your home are the perfect plants to buy for anyone interested in creating a home garden of beauty.
You can purchase them online quickly and easily and get your at-home garden ready to go in minutes!