After my last update to the latest version, the option to disable flower decay has gone. My players are freaking out that all their flowers are now dead bushes, obviously causing me a big headache. I didn't see anything about this in the changelog

What happened to it?

• Alice

I can't find the changelog, but I found that in 1.16.5, you can drop a flower on the ground and use this command to effectively negate decay:
/data merge entity @e[sort=nearest,limit=1,type=item] {Item:{tag:{BlockEntityTag:{passiveDecayTicks:-10000000}}}}

It basically gives an extra 10000000 ticks (500000 seconds) before the flower decays. Of course, one must be opped/have cheats enabled to do this.

You can simplify the command by using /give @p botania:creative_pool instead.

Check the changelog for version 222.

That only states for the passive wither, not for the flower decay

Same thing.
When flowers decay, they wither.

Oh I thought that was in regards to the pink wither

EDIT: This is going to drive alot of people away from the mod, which is a shame

The page explaining the reason for the change is now gone.

see https://vazkii.net/#blog/sins-of-a-solar-empire