I need some Grandmother's flower garden help....
 

I'm having an issue when I'm doing my English paper piecing grandmother's flower garden.

When I piece the individual flowers, I do right sides together with the petals, and everything lays flat. But when I try to connect my flowers together with two petals right sides together, my flowers never lay flat, they bend outwards and I can't flatten them.

Then I have to piece them by placing them both flat on the table, right sides down, and whip stitching them together. I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong, and why I can't stitch my flowers right sides together when I'm attaching them? Why aren't they laying flat?

When you are putting the petals right sides together, try catching just the top edges when doing your whip stitch. They should lay flat from the beginning. Good luck.

When you are holding them right sides together, double check and make sure all the other edges are lining up. it is easier to "split the difference" from the start than try to squeeze in something that is "off" later. You may find that they lay flatter after you take the paper pieces out, too.

Are you EPP? Be sure your pieces are secured to the papers. If you are not EPP and doing them with open stitches press them well as you connect them. I do not do EPP for the most part as the papers are in my way. Also I am left handed and that does make a difference when stitching things together. Be sure to mark well you joint points. That also will help you. This is a quilt of precision. Go slow, I am sure you will get it.
It has been a while since I made a GMFG quilt. The one in my avatar is a King size one I made. It was a travel along project that went with me to appointments and the such or long car rides. Great project for travel

I"ve only done one EPP quilt top. I found that if I took the papers out when that piece is surrounded by other pieces with papers in them, it made everything lay better. Pressing also helps.

I do alot of pp hexies, but I'm a picture learner, so I am not quite sure what you're saying. (it's just how my brain works).
if you could post a pic of where your issue is, ild be glad to help.

I've never been happy with the quality of my EPP when I whipstitch it. I started using the ladder stitch and am much happier with my work product. My good quilting friend uses a stitch called a flat back stitch.

I've kind of experimented with the binding stitch just to see how it would work, and it came out pretty decent...

It is important to remember the smaller the needle the smaller the stitch. When doing EPP I find the smaller, finer stitches lay better. This may or may not be the problem, but it is worth looking at.