Here I was trying to figure a way to explain complicated hormone ratios and plant physiology.
OK I give up between the carbohydrate and roots hypothesis and gardeners
planting in hardscape I am out numbered. I'll give you credit (couldn't give you additional reps yet) for imagination Bulldogdad!
imcurious I understand now what you thought, that plants are like hair or fingernails and not actual parts of a "body." Now you are seeing that plants are a lot more like us than you knew. Some of us can survive the loss of a limb others -not so much. It's the same with a plant.
The Sunflower was marginal to begin with, a seed that made it against all odds the way it looks. As an annual its primary "purpose" is to make a flower to make seeds for next year. Most sunflowers are single flower plants (a few varieties have multiple flower heads) and will turn brown as soon as the flower is ready to go to seed. It may not have lived much longer anyway.
The perennial with the purple flower is still a mystery at this point without a good photo to ID it, but it sounds like it may have been an Iris or possibly a peony, both of which can have purple flowers and, when young and/or planted too deeply, may only have one flower. Both only bloom at a certain time in the spring/early summer. Both would spend the rest of the summer taking energy from the sun to create the carbohydrates Kinky was talking about. This storage in the roots is not meant for current growth but is for next year's growth, next year's flowers and increasing the roots size for better over winter survival.
Some perennials can be more flexible about this and regrow the whole plant to flower again, others don't have the ability to grow all the parts. Disease entering in the damaged areas can kill plants no matter what their reserves. In the case of the Iris the energy would also go into increasing the length of the specialized root that grows sideways to begin creating new plants.
If you catch a plant at low reserves (with these particular plants that is in mid spring when it has just put out leaves and flower(s) ) it will be much less able to put out new shoots. This is often why plants that have been transplanted don't put out flowers or leaves for a while and look like they are just sitting there. They need to use all the energy their leaves are making to regrow roots. If growing conditions are not made optimal for it at this point with adequate water and good soil to grow in it will either appear to just stay the same or die. The "stay the same" plant is probably attempting to regain some root strength and size and may still grow greenery and flower(s) well next year.
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