The height is mostly determined by genetic, different phenotypes amongst one strain show different characteristics, the
more hybridized the strain is, and the
less stabilized it is, the more likely it is that
more variation will show between phenotypes. Other than that, if some of the taller plants were at some stage in low light conditions, they may have stretched to gain more light, thus making them taller. Usually if a plant has stretched for light, it will have longer internodes than the others
(internodes being the space between 2 nodes *See Glossary of Terms in my signature for more info on these things if need be), but once again, the length of the internodes is partially determined by the plants genetics, thus, different phenotypes may have different length internodes even if they're grown in the exact same conditions.
Pre-Flowers
As for the pre-flowers, they look like this:
Picture 1: Female pre-flower.
(I know the two hairs coming from the calyx are hard to see in the picture, but look closely, the two white hairs are their).
Picture 2: Male pre-flower.
Hope this helps a bit, cheers.