rmtagg,
I actually like that photo a lot. The one petal that's perpendicular to the lens looks great and the out of focus (oof) area looks really nice.
Every lens has a sweet spot where it performs best. Usually f5.6 or f8. It's different for every lens. That being said, you can stop down way past that to f22 (like those orchid photos from the other day) and get heaps of area in focus. Your lens at these small apertures suffer from 'diffraction'. Basically diffraction is the extra light bouncing around inside your lens that will deteriorate image quality.
Here's a good link:
Understanding Lens Diffraction
luminous-landscape is a pretty good sight to browse as well.
It all doesn't NEED to be in focus. Some photos are better without a huge DOF.
Did you decide on a macro lens?
Cheers, Matt
Edit: you have flowers out already?!? You lucky dog you.