I should have explained in the beginning of the above post that the 'wrong way' stem discussed was not visible to start with. Here's photos of the same pot taken a couple hours earlier. Upon reviewing these two pictures, it dawned on me that I had placed 3 good sized scale bulblets in this pot initially and there were 3 nice little plants growing in it last summer. That was how and when I decided to start exploring around in this pot.
