In attempting to produce something meaningful (for yourself, if for no one else), you have to consider whether a tree or a branch or a single bloom will convey the impact you are trying to produce. The subject itself might help you make your decision. If the tree is in a less than photogenic location, that will narrow your choices. If there is a lot of distracting background detail, that may narrow your decisions still more.
Here is a good example of what not to do. It doesn't matter how "pretty" the blooms are, this is one ugly picture. This was shot at an aperture of f/16 in an attempt to keep the entire blossoms in focus. It succeeds at that but it also allows the viewer to see the very busy background which detracts so much as to make the image useless.
In this photo, the background has been blurred sufficiently to keep it from being a distraction. It doesn't quite succeed because of the green leaves, but at least the blurred background is much nicer and doesn't create a distraction.
I think this photo strikes just about the right balance between the subject and the background. If all else fails, the sky can be used as a background by shooting from a slightly lower position than the subject.
Another idea to keep in mind is to look for a complementary color in the background to set the main subject against. The soft greens in this photo set off the pink color nicely.
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