So, I eventually figured out that the in-game hints for the dry petal and gold petal are flipped from how they actually work. The jam page has it right at least, but it still was confusing.
I do have another critique for the flower picking gameplay though, and that's the time limit. 30 seconds feels a bit too strict, and still encouraged trial-and-error even after figuring out how the special petals worked.
The game was definitely more enjoyable after realizing what I did wrong at least. Will come back to it once you release Act 3.