Both macwilliamsii and compacta occasionally do that, Gail, in fact I've got a compacta doing that right now. I don't know why, and it doesn't seem to carry over to the pups or the rest of the clump, it's just a random thing.

If I had to guess, I'd say that something is sending the foliar cells an incorrect signal that it's time to bloom, but the meristem is not getting the same message, so no inflorescence is produced. Then it somehow figures that out and stops doing it, at least for a while.

Thanks Lisa. It's a shame that it doesn't throw striped pups though.