I got this one last winter in bloom. It was so cute that I had to bring it home.
It had four little pbs with four spikes; two on one pb, the other two on two of the other pbs.
After close examination of the plant, I found that it had aphids all over the flowers! I panicked having lots of other plants in the house. I spayed alcohol on the flowers hoping to kill those bugs. well, the bugs did die, but they were not the only thing that died. All flowers fell off over the course of the following two days or so. Every single one of them! what a lesson about using alcohol on flowers!
I kept it throught the summer, during which 6 new growths appeared. One of the growths developed the bulb portion in June while all the rest didn't until early september. They actuall grew to a full size by early July but the bulb portion never developed until later.
With the developing pbs came new spikes and there were lots of them!
What an exciting moment
The spikes grew very very very slowly and finally this last week, those little buds started opening up.
Three pb have two spikes each, two smaller pbs carrying one spike each, and one prematurely developed pb has none. So there are total of eight spikes loaded with tiny fragrant yellow flowers.
I guess it is well worth the long wait.
Now, can anyone tell me if the white or pink twinkles have stronger frangrace than the yellow variety?
By the way, I grew mine by the window with strong sun all summer and by late August, I noticed the leaves were getting cooked (turning slightly yellow). I was lucky not to burn them.
Then I moved it under the halogen lamp where I grow my mini orchids. It's been doing very well.
So those of you who are space challenged like me, the halogen lamp ( I think it is a typical shop light) works well for certain plants.