Plants that require full sun, for instance, may grow but fail to flower in the shade. Cold winter temperatures may kill the flower buds. Unfortunately, nothing can be done to prevent this type of injury. Plants that are not fully hardy will be most susceptible to cold injury. Improper pruning may cause failure to flower.
Some plants bloom only on last year's wood.
Cutting the plants back severely removes all the flowering wood. Over-fertilizing with nitrogen can sometimes cause plants to grow only leaves and stems. Such plants will be quite large, but without flowers. A plant may fail to put on fruit because of all the reasons I have listed for failure to flower. If there are no flowers, there will be no fruits.