I suspect that this change to the mechanic is Vaskii once again saying: "I do not want anyone to set up a mana generation system that they do not have to baby-sit." It takes about 45 seconds or so for a thermalily to eat a block of lava and turn it into mana. It then starts its cool-down so the next block of lava should not be presented until 6 minutes after the first one. In theory, six thermalilies could share the same source point if (BIG IF) a lily not on cool down looks for lava to eat before a lily that is on cool down does so. In my observation, you don't get enough mana from one block of lava to make the gymnastics needed to use them worth it.
I will stick with my Endoflames that I only have to toss them a few blocks of coal now and again and be done with it.
Let's see... The only generating flowers i can think of that NEED babysitting are the thermalily and the rosa arcana, possibly the dandelifon. Maybe the passives if you really want to use them on more than entry-stepping stone.
Endoflame: Extremely easy to automate, item dropper + pressure plate or timer or a setup that'd work with a gourmy/entropiny
Munchdew: Set it up near a tree farm so it doesn't eat all the leaves and thus leaves enough saplings for the tree farm to sustain itself.
Gourmaryliss: Timer based item dropper, or use a system based on mana flow.
Entropinnyium: Use a system based on the mana detector, when mana stops flowing and there's room in the pool, set off TNT.
Kekimus: The challenge here is more on making the cake. Placing it is easy.
Spectrolous: Gathering the wool is pretty easy (use a sheep farm with 16 different coloured sheep). The challenge is dropping the wool in the right order if you automate.
Rafflowisa: Like the Kekimus, the challenge is making the Passive flowers for this to munch.
Dandelifion: This is the one flower (other than raffl) i haven't made an attempt at automating. But I can see it being automatable.