Few with inexpensive lens

[lightshipman]

Taken with my bargain Tamron 70-300mm. The focus on the buttercup was a bit to the back of the petals, bit windy when I took this.

Macro by Andrew Wright, on Flickr

Yellow blue and green by Andrew Wright, on Flickr

 

[Kodiak Qc]

Macro

Yes, its very soft but the colours are beautiful!

 

[lightshipman]

Yes, its very soft but the colours are beautiful!

Both handheld at 300mm, must try it with a tripod

 

[Kodiak Qc]

Both handheld at 300mm, must try it with a tripod

I don't see any movement blur so I think
critical focusing is the issue here.

 

[GardenersHelper]

I don't see any movement blur so I think
critical focusing is the issue here.

Yes, there wouldn't be movement blur at 1/1000 and 1/1250 sec. I imagine narrow DoF from f/5.6 would be a contributory factor for the first one. With their long stems both of those flowers would move a lot in a breeze so getting them in focus would have a large random element. I take lots of shots in those circumstances in the hope that one will work out ok. I doubt a tripod would make much difference in those circumstances, but worth trying to see if it makes a difference for you.

For flowers I like using a telephoto zoom setup like you used here. With my 70D I used a 55-250 and now with my G80 I use a 45-175, which has a similar equivalent focal length to the 55-250. I find I can be more creative with flowers working hand-held rather than using a tripod.