Hybiscus Stamen

DOF has nothing to do with a particular lens, so to speak, which is what I perceived that you meant in your description. Any 105mm lens with yield the same DOF at a given f stop & distance. Two factors playing against you here are - 1. the longer than normal focal length, and 2. the close-up proximity. Both will rob you of needed DOF compared to a wider lens and a farther distance.

I don't have a problem at all with the oof area on the far side of the hibiscus, Elizabeth, because that is not the viewer's point of focus. The viewer's center point of focus is the stamen, which looks plenty sharp to me. I like the oof bg and the nice color as well. However, I am not as sold on the comp because of the stamen approaching the left edge and the stamen base being cut off.

I appreciate the comments. I cut it off because it was out of focus at that point, but you are right, it's cut off badly.

The trade off between dof and magnification is always the major challenge in macro/close up work. In this case, your f-stop choice is working against you. I often work in the f/16 - f/22 range to get the dof that I like and will on occasion push that to my lens limit of f/32. At f/25 and higher I notice a small amount of reduced contrast due to diffraction, but that can be compensated for by adding contrast in processing. Alternatively, you can do stacking, which avoids the fundamental optical limits, but the trade off is extra effort in both taking and processing the results.