At the other end of the garden...

[AlwaysOnAuto]

begat this:

[DanK]

IMHO, the second is an appealing image. I would darken the background so that it would compete less, but that isn't a big deal.

The first one doesn't do it for me. Most of the space is devoted to the backgound, which is busy and distracting. My eye is drawn back and forth between the empty bright space on the right and the detailed foliage on the left, neither of which is a place I would want people to focus on.

Since you photgraph in the garden a lot, and your garden seems to have a lot of these distracting backgrounds--have you thought about using a piece of cloth or some other material to provide a temporary background?

[AlwaysOnAuto]

Maybe a different crop would help Dan?
Using a temp background would take the spontaneity of shooting out of photography for me. I'm trying to use DOF more to cut down on the bizziness of the backgrounds.
The second shot was taken right after I had mowed the lawns and I was trying to get it before the sun broke thru the clouds any more than it had, hence the soft shadow.
Does this crop help the first shot?

[lovelife65]

Beautiful! Agree in liking number 2 best
Very nice detail and colors.

[DanK]

The crop helps by removing a lot of the distraction.

DOF helps, but only to a point unless the background is so far away that it is nearly completely or completely out of focus.

[Tony M]

I agree with Dan. The cropped version is an improvement, but I would try to place the flower with a homogeneous background that doesn't distract the viewer. Simple props shouldn't kill the spontaneity of the moment.

What camera (specifically sensor size), lens and focal length did you use?

Tony

[AlwaysOnAuto]

These were shot with my Sony A7ii w/Micro Nikkor 55mm f2.8 lens Tony. It's a full frame sensor if you're not familiar with it.

[Shadowman]

Nice shots.

[IzzieK]

I enjoyed those two. #1 had greatly improved and the second one is just beautiful.