Congrats on getting your phals to spike. That's a lot of good growing, and you should feel smug about it :). As to the single flower: Flowers on a phal spike do open one at a time. So it may be just the normal opening. Look real close at the tip of the spike: is there a little tight roundish tip? That tip often lengthens and forms additional buds, which will open while the 1st flower is still on. However, that's not the only possible scenario: it could be it's a newish plant and one flower is all it has strength for. I've had that a couple of times. In that case, be patient and your next blooming should be a lot bigger. It could be, depending on the genetics, one of those summer-bloomers that keeps developing one flower at a time over a long period of time. I've had this, too. So I would say, enjoy your flower and take it as a sign you are doing things right. Be a little patient and you may still get lots more flowers. Be a lot patient and you will get another spike with more flowers next year. As long as your phals are getting good light and put out new leaves regularly, you'll get lots of flowers from them Enjoy

Is your plant still alive? That's a lot of food and some falls to the soil. A search in this forum will give you the answers you seek. Use the search toward the bottom of the prior page.

If the infestation isn't too severe, you may still be able to get them down to acceptable levels. Sorry for the scare btw, but i don't think people realize how hard it is to get rid of them once they're dug in. !) Yellow sticky cards for detection and to get some of the adults. 2) Diligent spraying of damn near any plant with insecticidal soaps and neem oil. If you prefer, 'inorganic" sprays I'm sure are also available, but I don't know if they do any better. 3) This is probably the most effective and I'm still working on it myself(damn gophers) is to go with integrated pest management. Create an insectary for beneficial bugs to feed and breed year round so when the pests show up, you have the good guys to take care of them. Once you do this, you'll be able to decrease the pesticide use and you'll want to. Because you don't want to kill the good guys also. Read up on IPM(Integrated Pest management) -- also a forum on GW 4) in the meantime(since you probably don't have an insectary yet) you may want to order some beneficial bugs/larvae that you can release. I'm going to order some green lacewing eggs shortly. If you have an ant problem, try to take care of it-- they'll scare off ladybugs and eat the lacewing eggs Here's a couple of links that may be useful. http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/PESTNOTES/pn7401.html http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/consumer/quickref/pest management/plants_attract_beneficial.html http://tanishapuchalski.wordpress.com/2011/04/06/nature-gardens-ten-flowering-plants-that-attract-lacewings/ Kevin This post was edited by woohooman on Mon, Jun 3, 13 at 17:48

The flash removes all detail in the flowers. Can you take a photo without the flash and tell us where this is growing? Is it in bloom now?