Something different in the air?

It's been a bit dry lately where I live, but not terribly so and the rainfall to date is actually above average.  It's been quite hot lately too, but nothing we haven't seen before in the land where you can often fry on egg on the sidewalk in the summer time.

What I haven't seen before outside an extended drought, is all the spotted, shriveled and dying leaves and blooms.

Across the front of the property where we live is a line of crepe myrtle trees that should be pretty awesome now, especially the larger ones.  Instead, virtually every one of the thousands and thousands of blooms have withered and not opened.  Many of the leaves are partially brown and many have fallen off.  The growing tips are dead or dying and look like they have been sprayed with some kind of caustic herbicide and the bark itself is curdling up.

The hyacinths are faring even worse.  Blooms are not maturing and leaves are dying and dropping.  One of our largest specimens is almost totally absent of leaves when it should be full of both leaves and blooms.

The large Queen Elizabeth rose bush, one of the hardiest of all hybrid tea roses, is almost totally bare of leaves.  On it too, the buds are not making it all the way to flowers.

Coincidence? Perhaps. Kind of like the coincidence of upper respiratory crud that also seems to be making the rounds I guess.  Or the oily film on the outside of my cousin's travel trailer.  Yeah, I know that oil films are not uncommon when you travel on the highway - but the catch is that his trailer has not moved from his pasture since he bought it three or four years ago, and it was thoroughly cleaned off just last year.