Hi there! Thank you so much for playing our game and for the thoughtful feedback! You're absolutely right, it definitely needs more polish. The project turned out to be a bit too ambitious for such a short jam.
Your game-run was really impressive! You were so close! The main secret to beating our game is actually hidden on the last page of the manual — the one about flower upgrades. There's a mechanic described there that isn't obvious during gameplay, but once you figure it out, getting to the end becomes a lot easier.