Hey Adam.
I took 19.6 hours to go solo. I was more than ready, as my instructor had made me do about 6 hours of them before hand to ensure he wasnt made to look like a dick when I was checked by the examiner. I probably could have gone earlier, but in aviation it's definately better to be sure.
RE: the flare. May I very shamlessly plug one of my youtube videos for you to watch. This is from a flight only undertaken on Oct 21st. If you skip to 08:00 you can see my approach and how I tackle the flare with a mild headwind (offset 20deg). The key is to fly stright and level at about 5ft above the runway with power off. Drag will slowly reduce the airspeed and you will slowly start to descend. But you want to resist the descent and keep slowly pulling back very gently attempting to keep the nose on the horizon. By the time you're near the stall, drag should have lowered you to just a foot or so above the surface (remember the stall warner goes off about 5kts above the stall, so if you hear it, dont panic and drop the nose, just hold it steady).
YouTube - GoPro HD - Flying (Audio 1-2 sec out of sync for most of the video, with the exception of the first 10 and last 10 seconds).
I'm new to this myself having only accumulated 6 hours post license, so I'm more than happy for constructive critisism.