Sunflowers didn’t do well this year

My hollyhocks haven’t done well, although hollyhocks will grow with minimal soil or water, nor have nasturtiums. Few flowers and soon over.
My young apple tree is loaded and my peach tree has about 15 fruits, first time ever.
We’ve had no substantial rain since March and I’ve watered selectively, leaving the hardy things but watering the roses, pots and young plants.

Sorry to have to disagree my sunflowers have been magnificent 12 to 14 ft high with huge heads and my Cosmos has really gone mad it’s so funny the differences isn’t it ?
J52 mine too
East coast here it’s been a beautiful summer hot and brilliant just as a summer should be and all my flowers (except my lupins which were eaten to pieces) have made a brilliant show

Allira - my fuchsias are also really suffering. Normally at this time of year they are 'dripping' with flowers.

Also my roses are not happy.
I'm in the south and the lack of rain and intense heat has put great stress on many plants and particularly the trees.

My sunflowers have been brilliant, in the Midlands. In fact they’ve been so big some have become top heavy and needed substantial support. I grew multi headed ones. I’m not at home atm. so can’t take a photo yet.

My cosmos are hopeless, they flowered well, I deadheaded them regularly and now they've given up.

I didn't grow sunflowers this year but the fuchsias aren't flowering very well, geraniums are good but they like dry heat I think.

Well, up in the NE we are a little behind the South with weather. I don’t grow sunflowers in my garden, so we are off to a local farm today where there are 12 acres with 12million sunflowers!

I do wonder why sunflowers haven’t done well, when we’ve had so much sun! (Around here. anyway.)

I’ve stayed in France not far from Bordeaux one summer when it was absolutely roasting hot, and there were miles and miles of fields full of sunflowers!

I notice that my plants vary enormously in their performance.
Last year , my roses were glorious and this year - they aren't blooming that well .
I had a nice display of peonies .
I spent ages planting gladiolis and in trying to gather bunches for friends I notice that some are in bloom and some not .
I've grown them with great success before .
I don't remember this happening before .

I too am in the south and ours have been fine, in fact since the hosepipe ban they haven’t been watered at all, still standing now. The larger ones are going to seed, smaller ones looking healthy still.

Every year suits some plants better than others. I’ve got an amazing crop of tomatoes, sweet peppers and chilli peppers, all grown outside, and my cosmos and zinnias are the best ever. My courgettes and gourds on the other hand are not happy at all, and although we’ve had more rain than some other parts of the UK the farmers are worried about the winter animal feed because the hay yield is down.

I read somewhere that it is the lack of humidity that has caused problems for a lot of plants this year. Watering helps the roots but doesn’t do much for the air around the plant.

It’s not been a good year in the garden or the farms around here.