Hello! I wanted to share my progress, and what I have been working on so far. Here is my block-in/rough draft
My original concept was to make a wintery version of this fx and replacing the flower with a snowflake. Since they were both radial symmetric shapes, I expected it would share the same visual “look” when it explodes into spherical bubble. Oh, how wrong I was. After many hours adjusting the UV’s, timing, texture shape, mesh, dissolve, etc. I couldn’t get it how I imagined it in my head. 
I think there are 2 main issues with the snowflake 
shape that makes the spherical transition not work as well as the flower 
shape
Reason 1
I was under the assumption that the flower smoothly transitions into a ring using polar coordinates, so of course the snowflake will too!
Sometimes knowing how things work the way they do is helpful and can save you a lot of time 
I spent most of my time assuming my petal edge is what makes the shape circular, but it turns out it’s the dissolve that makes it circular.
And since the snowflake turns “circular” at the dissolve and not at the edges of its arm like I assumed, it leaves a visual clutter of lines and gaps
Reason 2
When the flower expands and each petal gets thicker/fatter, even though the shape is expanding, it still is a flower for most of its time
As for the Snowflake when its arms (petals) starts to get thicker and it expands, it starts losing its form earlier towards the end of its lifetime.
Conclusion
In conclusion, my flower is no ordinary flower. It’s a snowflower 