Time for flowering will be pretty much the same regardless of the type of light. Once you flip to 12/12, the plants goes into flower mode and uses its own internal clock.

CFLs work very well for small grows. You haven't said how big you want to let your plants get or how much room you have for the grow. This will dictate how many CFLs you use and where you place them. If you've got the room, I'd suggest using two 10" clamp lights from Wal-Mart and get some Y-adaptors and rig them for four bulbs each. One of those over a plant will give you lots of canopy coverage. If you really want to do it right, I'd get a lamp and put a Y-adaptor and use two more bulbs...put that between the plants for some lower canopy coverage during flower. If you buy the Wal-Mart bulbs, the total price for all of this will be around $80 (that includes 6500k bulbs for veg and 2700k for flower). You can get a couple plants up to maybe 3' with that set up.