plant heights different this year?

I am growing 6' zinnias @home. I consider it a lack of strong sunlight, but I am seeing this in other areas as well- my cukes bloom, grow tall and never fruit. On the highways I also see plants that should be tall and havent even started blooming- from the weather temps droppin so low at night and never reaching abive the hi 80's in the daytimes. I also noticed a great many more grasses this year than wildflower blooms... My query is if anyone is tracking our UV doses this year compared to others. I know some of you are also getting taller and delayed plants/blooms.

My zinnias are extremely tall this year but blooming profusely. My arbor is covered with only five MG plants, a 4'x6' one that I am having to trim everyday just to be able to use it. Yet only a handful of blooms in all that green.
Wildflowers were overcome by grasses this year due to our strange winter. We had warm and rain in December, then a very deep freeze mid January followed by the freak ice storm two weeks later. It really affected the tender wildflowers. By the time they recovered, grasses were taking over.
I had irises blooming as late as two weeks ago, and I have several crinums and amaryllis that have shown no desire to bloom this year. My tomato plants are over eight feet and look awesome. Usually by this time I am yanking them out because they are fading. I picked ten pounds of tomatoes yesterday, unheard of.
Your cukes may not have female flowers, happens sometimes. Which reminds me, my eggplants are close to four feet tall and should have been staked. They are sprawling from the weight of fruit. I never have big eggplants.

My veggie garden is doing great, cucs still producing & actually growing more vine, tomato plants growing side shoots after I topped them. BUT, my okra is very slow this year. I thought it's because I planted my seeds a bit later than usual. I have them situated in front of my cuc & cantaloupe vines. It should be hot enough for them. So, not sure what's happening. They are just now beginning to grow taller.
On another note, I think I am about to get a downpour. Yep, here it comes!

My Zinnias are normal......but my Citrus trees are all budding and putting on tiny fruit in JULY. So strange, usually they bud in early spring.
Perhaps this means we will have a mild winter.....YAY!!!

As far as I can tell everything is delayed....but the grasses are going crazy.

Morgan did your Citrus trees bud in Spring or is this the first round for the year?

We had like 5 buds in spring, and got 3 baby oranges from it. Tree normally gives us 50 to 60 oranges a year. NOW it is covered in hundreds of blooms.....I just hope they ripen quick!

This is how our tree looks in a normal year.....LOL.

Holy mackerel, that tree is bending over backwards for you! Lol :)

My zinnias topped out about 4 ft and are still blooming profusely despite very little water and high temps recently.

This is what I am talking about... Is it the coolness? Is it day lengths of sun and uv?

I have no idea, but I'm very interested to hear what others think?

We have had more rain this year.....our grass is still green!

And since we put in the rain collection system, plants seem happier. YAY!

Took this shot of some Zins yesterday.

Got slowed down researchin, laptop rolled over and whimpered out the door, sigh. I know some plants require more sun, longer sun, cooler temps are spring weather. The grasses were thick way earlier as if they have crowded out the weaker nectar flowers amd block the seeds that wait for their conditions to return- like an ongoing compost pile that has gotten too rich for them. More domesticated flowers arent reacting the same from what i see.

Very pretty Morgan :)

Kitt that makes sense.. things are greener here but not as many wildflowers as last year. Could be the icy winter though?

Then why are places like Detroit covered in wildflowers?

Oh I see.. no clue then! LOL

LOL.....it was Detroit's turn.....LOL.

Kitt - I try not to focus on things I have no control over....like weather and growing patterns. I am just appreciative that our grass is still green!

I travel so much... diff soils, diff conditions, I see the drought in Ca, the floods in the NE, and hear the issues as the weather changes around us. We DO have different conditions prevalent today that yesteryear DIDN'T deal with. Cant change em, but can change what we plant . This may be nothin more than the grasses roots have crowded them out

I think it's just a combination of things. Detroit and its flora are adapted to cooler temps. I think it started with our cold winter. The temps stayed cooler longer and now with the rain at such an unusual time, things are just kind of confused. I'm in SoCal right now and the temps are the same as Central Tx the veggie gardens look great and are producing like crazy.

Everything is ALWAYS changing.....was ever thus.

I'm still appreciative my grass is still green.....LOL.

Sitting in Belton tonite. Driving in Texas with its mowed hwys brought back vivid memories of wildflowers being mowed before seeds could be dropped. THAT might explain the shortage, since I know most of Texas wildflowers arent even affected by cold. Perhaps the tropicals, but not the ones I see every Spring.
Now the height of the helianthus is a good size and they are a cheerful sight in Hillsboro. Saw several fields of sunflowers with heads bowed - looks as if they are ripening for harvests soon. They are pretty in the fields, tho I havent seen any fields in Tx in awhile.

I've seen a few sunflowers in Tx but not near as many as I remember in yrs past. I have to agree with Morgan, nature is always changing due to the reasons mentioned and due to reasons we have yet to understand. Things seem to go in cycles.

I am under the impression that the wildflowers were and are outstanding this year and had attributed it to the colder winter we experienced this past winter.The seeds love cold. The grasses are tall, especially our blasted bahia. The sunflowers are great here in Freestone County and on my weekly trail to Limestone and Mclennan.

Glad you found us and HELLO! My basils for the white line runs, chuckle. One sprig african blue and one sprig sweet aussie to hide the diesel, chuckl