Flowering Time

I was wondering a lot of times things say flowering time ..... and have a certain number of days. Does this mean that it is that long till the plant will usually start to flower, how long it stays in the flowering stage, etc....I am going to grow some Northern Lights soon too and I was wondering about how long from seedling to end of flowering it usually takes if anybody knows. Thanks.

it can take up to 14 days for it's gender to show,then depending on the strain it can finnish in 8-12WKs total....bonbon

Thanks for the info. I finally understand a lot better now.