Ionian Thistle

No, it will not do. Try closer with a macro lens. Try to find addtitional elements to complement the composition.

I agree with Allen. Much, much tighter crop would be helpful to this image. I do think that it could stand on its own without having to introduce any new compositional elements but it certainly does need to be tightened up considerably.

I like the phot on an artistic level. Its simple and clean. The flower is coming in at an angle. Traditional rules would say the subject is too centered. Others are saying it can't stand on its own, it might be able to though if it was not so centered.

A lone thistle swaying in the Italian wind...

I like this photo for it's simplicity. The background has sufficient contrast to the flower, that the flower stands out; it doesn't need to be larger in the frame. I think, however that you should crop the distracting stems on the left side of the flower, because they don't support the composition.

I like it but I think closer by much better.

I tend to agree with closer and more detail, but I really like a lot of the background. Playing around with a post-it note mask on my screen, I thought you might crop this tighter in a vertical format. I put the stem coming in from the bottom close to, but not in, the left corner. This left me with some of the brighter parts of your background. Anyway, I'm an amateur. I like it.