Pacific Northwest Gardening: Sunflowers- good and bad, 1 by Kyra

Kyra wrote:
The good is that my smaller sunflowers (Double Dandy and Peach Passion) are blooming, far earlier than I expected, although duller in color than I had hoped.

The bad is that several of my infrareds are covered with purple-black splotches and freckles. I've googled and ransacked my library without finding anything, but I'm betting it has something to do with all the grey and wet that we are no longer having. Any notions?