I think I solved this @crinrict @Psychotps
So tonight I bought dine out, spa day, outdoor retreat, and jungle adventure leaving the ONLY pack I don't have as strangerville. I specifically chose these because I wanted the first two and I know OR adds herbalism and new plants so I wanted to ensure I had all the plants the game has.
On loading the game (after updating mods of course) 3 plants said evolve me. I evolved them, these plants were not ready to evolve before then. The next day 4 or 5 more evolved. Today is day 3 and my whole garden is sparkly evolves and my rose has gone up to almost evolve level from half way past magnificent!!!!!!! This is the first time my rose has EVER moved past excellent since I've had these issues!!!!! I've played for generations with this plant and it's been the same.
I have a hunch it's outdoor retreat. I obviously can't prove that because I wanted all the packs at once LOL. Please if one of you has the power please add this info to the topic, this is a real issue even if it is rare. 75 people me-too'ed this and I see posts about it all the time. If it really is that some update broke plants if you don't have one of these game packs you can probably fix it pretty simply....at least now you know for sure and I gave insight into the evolve triggering then vanishing in an earlier post.
For the record my sims both have super green thumb and every sim I've worked with has this. Their lots always have good soil. They've always fertilised with growfruit. Until I started testing this heavily they all had gardeners who had super green thumb trait. They would talk to the pants, keep bees, etc too. All of my sims have maxed garden skill and same with gardeners. There's no reason for my rose to have not budged in sim years (where seasons are weeks) and then to suddenly when I install these packs to actually have some movement. And the rose isn't the only one it was all of my plants bar maybe 4 total, it's just easier to track one. I will come back and complain if it stops again but for now it seems to finally be moving forward. Getting perfect plants has been my one goal since this game started and now it finally feels achievable.