I love the look of the sunflower, though mine is more of a soft pink daisy (camera makes it look white) I went up to a 3.5mm hook for the stem, it was a little easier, still quite finicky and I found I could usually only work through the FLO. Not sure if I should try going up a hook size again or just push through

Touched it out and got the first flower done (lavender). I found it tricky to make the stem with my 3mm hook, I think I will size up to at least 3.5mm for any other stems that suggest 3mm.

Since you gave permission to include or not include the heart, I made a couple of adjustments to row 16 and 17 to be a heart shape I prefer: Row 16: 13sc,cc 2sc, cc 3sc, cc 2sc, cc 16sc Row 17: 36 SC in colour A