this is one of the most interesting threads that I have read. I have limelights. 4 plants, planted at same time, came from same nursery and planted adjacent to each other. They are mature plants now. 2 bloomed profusely this year. The other 2 have scores of "blooms" which did not "open up" or rather "fully develop". (Very similar to the stories above.) We could not figure out how 4 identical plants, planted at same time, same age, same variety, same light, same pruning technique and same location could produce extravagant blossoming blooms on 2 plants and stunted blooms that never mature on the other 2. This at least gives me two theories, (different moisture and sterile blooms). I did notice that the bees were going CRAZY on the plants that bloomed more profusely.

Flower drop probable causes: 1. Day temp too high >95F 2. Night temp too low 3. Too much nitrogen fertilizer 4. Too much water 5. Low light levels (reduces fertility). 6. Very low humidity (reduces fertility) 7. Poor air circulation (air circulation contributes to pollination). 8. Lack of pollinating insects. 9. Size of pot Too much mineral in feedwater. Too much grower attention.

I am currently growing sweet aperitif tomatoes. Thompson & morgan says it is the sweetest tomatoes around and I did my own research, it is definitely the sweetest, but when I read on the internet, it seems not many people is growing it. We have only one season in Malaysia which is hot, hot and hot. Well there is two seasons here, rainy season and dry season. But rainy and dry season temperature is almost the same, Just example if today is cloudy and raining, temperature will be cooler by around 5 celcius, but as soon as the next day you will be back to square one that is hot unless it rains again. I grew my tomatoes on 29 May 2014 and it took only 3 days to germinate and packet says 7 days. It says germination temperature is 15-21 celcius more a less, but the afternoon temperature was around 37-39 celcius at the peak and around 28 celcius at the coolest and still germinate than less than half the time, sometimes people give lots of advise, I always believe this, never try never know and too many good cooks spoils the dish. My tomato plants is now 1 month and 1 week old and it already has flower buds. One packet seed has 10 seeds in it, some say it is a hybrid some says heirloom, whatever it is, if I do have extra seeds in the future, would you be interested in having some? If I do send postage is on me :-)

Yes, and the native plants seem more confused than the others. Our goldenrod is almost 6' tall but hasn't bloomed yet. Still, with it being that tall, I suspect it is ahead of itself and will bloom early. The native blackberries bloomed, fruited and finished up incredibly early. The sand plums (we have the ones that mature to yellow, not red) were ripe 4-6 weeks early, which I sort of did expect since they bloomed about a month early. The Texas Lantana has bloomed, set seed, and acts like it thinks its work is done. The native milkweeds in the fields have bloomed and gone to seed already, and we haven't even seen that many monarchs yet. The clasping-leaf coneflowers in the field that usually bloom in July-August are now blooming. The liatris aren't yet, but I need to look at them closely to see if they're getting ready to. The sumac looks like it is July or August already. The prickly pear cacti bloomed early. The rough-leaved dogwood bloomed early. I could go on and on. My western ironweed hasn't bloomed yet, but it is close to blooming. I feel like I fell asleep in late April and woke up in late July. What's going to remain to bloom in the late summer and early autumn months? Even spring and summer wildflowers have been a bit ahead of themselves. So have many veggies and herbs. I have complained that my veggies have been running full speed ahead and I can't catch up for the last 2 or 3 months. Cool-season veggies finished up early, and all my onions were ready at virtually the same time. I grow a wide variety so they will mature more slowly over a period of a couple of months. Nope. About 2/3s were done all at the same time, and then the others that I should be harvesting in July are done now. We were very warm very early down here, so everything started early. Then, we got a big cooldown and plentiful rain in May. That cool spell made cool-season wildflowers that already were finishing up put out big new flushes of blooms which now are roasting in the heat and won't last long. It is just bizarre. It has affected animals too, by the way. The baby cottontails were really early this year, and we have had baby chicks being born here since early February, and just had 5 more hatch out over the weekend. Coyotes are out hunting in our front yard in the middle of the day (which might be related to all the cottontails and chicks, but why in the daylight hours and not at night?). I've never seen such strange behavior on the part of plants, animals and even insects. All the heat-loving insects arrived in March or April, so at this point, the spider mites have reached a population of about 3 billion mites per plant. The June bugs arrived in late January or early February, which I did think was a clue we were in for an odd year. I want a do-over with the proper weather and proper plant, animal and insect behavior because 2016 has been too strange.