Actually a Japanese Anemone or Windflower (Anemone hupehensis). 60mm macro lens + 68mm of extension tubes + macro twin flash kit. Full view of plant here:
No, not necessarily. But some diffusion is usually a good thing. Using a 60mm lens, as I did here, puts me only about 5 cm (2 inches) from the flower, so it's easy to catch a lot of reflections from the flash, which again means burned out highlights. The twin flash set allows me to control that pretty well.