#albuca

Plant of the Day

Sunday 24 May 2026

The South African bulb Albuca setosa (bristly albuca) was flowering in this glasshouse. The leaves are only slightly fleshy and often shrivel up in dry weather, sometimes while the plants are flowering. The bulbs need a sunny location with a well drained growing medium.

Albuca spiralis

This South African bulb is well-named, because the leaves are very spiraled. It comes from the winter-rainfall region in western South Africa, and it is completely dormant all summer. The curling leaves emerge along with the arrival of the rains in autumn, and then the flowers follow in late winter to early spring. Albuca is now placed in the Asparagus Family, in the subfamily Scilloideae, but it was formerly in the Hyacinth Family.

Albuca concordiana is flowering! Which is excellent because a lot of my seasonal plants– particularly the winter growers– have been having a hard time lately and I’ve lost a lot of them. I’m thinking it’s because my apartment doesn’t get a lot of temperature variation and it’s in the 70s most of the time. (Rip all of my Haworthia 😭)

Luca learns a new language as an extracurricular and constantly flirts with and confesses to Alberto. He thinks he's safe because there's no way his friend could understand.