If you are in search of an unusual succulent that will give your garden an overall eye-catching effect and enjoyment to your garden, then you should consider getting yourself a Frizzle Sizzle!
Native to South Africa, Albuca Spiralis or also known as Frizzle Sizzle, is a bulb succulent that can grow up to 8-inches tall. This plant is known for its long and narrow but attractive, dark green corkscrew leaves. Each leaf has glandular hairs, making it feel a bit sticky when touched. And from late Winter to Spring, 10 to 20 large, yellow-green flowers with a strong vanilla fragrance can emerge on each spike.
Albuca 'Frizzle Sizzle' is relatively easy to grow and care for, making it the ideal plant for newbie gardeners or for someone who tends to forget to water their plants. Not convinced yet? Read on to learn more about how to care for this wonderful succulent!
General Care
Caring for Frizzle Sizzle requires you to know a little more about their growing region and conditions. If cared properly, you may even see your Frizzle producing quirky and dangling vibrant flowers. The nodding blooms of frizzle sizzle have a sweet smell of vanilla and butter.
As a genus of 100 types of plants, Frizzle sizzle (aka albuca spiralis) coils up from the bulb. Keep in mind that its unique eye appeal bulb needs a cooling period to grow healthy foliage and then the flowers. However, it can be quite challenging to grow it indoors, as they thrive more when kept under sunlight.
Nevertheless, frizzle sizzles are fussy about water and drainage needs. So, if you are not experienced in gardening, caring for this spiral grass plant can be a challenge for you. Besides this, it’s important for you to know that albuca spiralis takes 12 weeks to grow fully, especially when you have placed it in the right growing conditions.
Moreover, frizzle sizzle requires a minimum temperature of 60° F. Not to forget, frizzle sizzles grow best in slightly warmer temperatures. Nevertheless, an ideal growing season for these beautiful plants is winters.
1. Water Requirements
From the beginning of the summer through most of the fall, Frizzle Sizzle should only be watered once every 2 or 3 weeks, or when the soil is completely dry. This is very important to remember, as this is when the plant goes through its dormancy period.
During this plant's growing season, which happens in Winter months or once the weather starts to cool down, your watering should be adjusted to once a week or just enough to keep its soil evenly moist but not soggy.
Image by Succulents Box
Inspect the leaves closely to determine whether Frizzle Sizzle need to be watered or not.
It is also a good practice to inspect the leaves of your Frizzle Sizzle to determine whether you are just giving it enough water to stay hydrated or not. If you see that the leaves start to turn yellow, floppy or soft, wilting, or basal collapse, then it means that you are already overwatering it, so hold off with your watering can and wait for the soil to dry out before giving it another drink.
Underwatering, on the other hand, will cause the leaves of Frizzle Sizzle to have dry or brown tips, droop, or even stunted growth. As soon as you notice these signs on your plant, make sure to give it a good soak of water to keep it healthy and happy.
2. Soil
A succulent or cactus soil mix should be enough to give your Frizzle Sizzle good airflow, and at the same time, enough water retention. You can also blend your own by mixing regular potting medium with 50 to 70% inorganic substances like coarse sand, pumice, or perlite.
3. Fertilize
You will need to feed your eye-catching frizzle sizzle plant throughout the growing season with a balanced and diluted liquid feed as a fertilizer. However, make sure that your albuca spiralis soil is a little wet before you feed it.
Keep in mind that the best growing season is winter and not the summer time. Therefore, stop feeding your plant once the dormancy occurs in the late spring. Yet, feed them again when winters come around.
4. The Best Spot to Place Your Plant (Light & Temperature)
Place your frizzle sizzle under the full sun or partly shady place in a south-facing direction. Don’t forget that this unusual yet attractive mini frizzle sizzle requires a sheltered spot, away from the radiators, draughts, and windows. Well, filtered sunlight for your albuca spiralis is acceptable.
Photo credit: @poki_succulents on Instagram
Furthermore, its attractive spiral leaves are greatly affected by the amount of water and sunlight they receive. Put simply, low light conditions will produce fewer curls in the leaves.
Direct sunlight or extremely hot temperatures can burn your little plant. For this reason, make sure to place your frizzle sizzle in a position with filtered sunlight.
5. Dormancy
Spring and Summer months are when your Albuca 'Frizzle Sizzle' will go through its dormancy period. And caring for this plant will be a bit different compared to other months or seasons. Fertilization shouldn’t be performed, and watering should be lessened or stopped until it grows new leaves in the winter months.
Why is my Frizzle Sizzle not curling?
Uncurling of leaves is one of the issues that you'll most likely experience when growing a Frizzle Sizzle, and this is rather frustrating since once it starts to uncurl or straightened, it cannot coil and form back its corkscrew shape, and the only way to get it back to curl its leaves is to allow the leaves of the plant to die back and remain with just the bulb during its dormancy period, so the plant will grow new foliage with its spiral shape.
Take note that Frizzle Sizzle lose its spiral shape when;
- You allowed the plant to flower.Frizzle Sizzle’s leaves start to straighten out to give way or make room for the flower stalks.
- Lack of sunlight exposure.
- Overwatered.
So if you don't want to risk losing the curl shape of your Frizzle Sizzle’s leaves, trim or remove the flower bud when it appears using a clean, sharp knife or a pair of scissors, and make sure that it gets enough light and avoid overwatering at all cost.
How to make Frizzle Sizzle bloom?
In late Winter to Spring, Albuca 'Frizzle Sizzle' can produce stalks with drooping, creamy yellowish-green vanilla-scented flowers, which can reach about 12 to 24-inches high and have about 10 to 20 blooms per spike.
Photo credit: @Stefan Neuwirth on flickr_files
While the plant is flowering, you should know that the tips of the plant's leaves will start to turn brown or dry. This is a natural occurrence of the plant, but if you feel uneasy seeing the brown or dry tips, you can simply pinch them away or just don't allow the plant to bloom by removing the flower stalks when they first emerge to prevent browning altogether.
How to repot Frizzle Sizzle?
Step 1: Carefully remove the plant from its current pot and remove any excess soil from the roots. While in the process, it is also wise to inspect the bulbs of your Frizzle Sizzle and remove or dispose of any rot you see.
Step 2: Fill the 1.5-inches of your new, about 2-inch wider pot (with drainage holes) with well-draining soil, then plant the bulb in the middle.
Step 3: Pour more soil in the gap between the pot and plant until it reaches 3/4 of the pot's height. This should allow you to keep the top of the bulb above the potting medium. NOTE: DO NOT compact the soil down for stability. Instead, simply pat the pot's sides gently a few times for consolidation.
How to propagate Frizzle Sizzle?
Frizzle sizzle can be propagated through seeds. To do this, simply plant the seeds no deeper than twice their size, then mist some water to keep them damp (not soggy) until the plant starts to come up.
Just make sure to place them in a spot where they can get full sun to help keep the seeds warm enough to germinate and to plant them within 6 months after collecting.
Photo credit: tekdeeps.com
To propagate through bulbs, carefully separate a bulb or two (with healthy roots) from the parent plant, then replant it as a new plant. Propagating through division has pretty much the same process, except that you need to separate the whole cluster of bulbs into 3 to 4 groups of bulbs before replanting.
Pests and Disease Problems
While most of the plants, including succulents, often develop pests and diseases, frizzle sizzle or albuca spiralis never does. In other words, this spiral grass plant has no issues, such as disease problems or pests.
However, it’s important to mention here that when albuca spiralis grows its flower stalks in the blooming season, it turns the tips of the curly leaves to brown. To prevent this, remove the flowers as soon as they start to grow.
Also, if you see its green leaves drying up and shedding, don’t worry. It signifies that the dormancy period of frizzle sizzle has begun. The plant goes into dormancy during summer, loses all its leaves, and stays dormant until the winter. However, as long as the bulb is healthy, the leaves grow back in winter.
You can see more about Common Pests & Diseases Treatment for Succulents
[FAQs]Frequently Asked Questions
1. Why is my Frizzle Sizzle not curling?
To make it simple, lack or low light exposure will cause your Frizzle Sizzle to produce only a few curls, or worse, won't curl at all. Direct or extremely hot temperatures may cause its leaves to burn, so make sure that you are just giving your Frizzle Sizzle enough light exposure it needs to keep it healthy and its curly leaves.
2. Why is my Frizzle drooping?
Lack of water is the main reason why a Frizzle Sizzle droops. Keep in mind that even though this plant is considered as a succulent, it is less drought-tolerant compared to other types of succulents. Check out the Water Requirements above to help you avoid or rectify this issue.
3. Why is my Frizzle turning brown?
Browning tips are caused when the Frizzle sizzle produces a flower stalk. This happens because the plant drives all its energy into producing flowers. Over and underwatering can also make the leaves of your Frizzle Sizzle turn brown.
4. Should I let the Frizzle flower?
Allowing a Frizzle Sizzle to produce flower stalks in spring, will cause the tips of its leaves to turn brown or dry. So if you don't want to see this happen to your plant, then it is better to remove the stalks as soon as they appear.
Photo credit: tekdeeps.com
5. How to save it from root rot
Yellowing leaves, moldy soil, stunted growth, and a rotten collapsed base are the signs of root or bulb rot. Once you see one of these symptoms in your Frizzle Sizzle, quickly take it out of the pot and do some inspection. If you see that the roots have a yellow tinge, you're good to go, but those that are brown and mushy must be removed or discarded immediately.
You can see more about Root rot treatment for succulents.
The Final Say
Frizzle sizzle is a magical little plant that has unique, spiral leaves and requires no extra care. However, the shared caring tips will ensure that this captivating plant stays happy and healthy, indoors or outdoors.
Last but not least, more light and dry growing conditions are perfect for growing frizzle sizzles in your home garden.
See more about How to take care of Crassula Red Pagoda
For Types of Succulents Careguide. Read more information here.
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