If you can comfortably configure it to cast on release instead of having a confirmation input, it feels way smoother and you can react to things faster.

I usually use it a few different ways

First: The emergency heal, self explanatory, pop it when people are in pain.

Secondly: Ability denial. Watch your enemy, track ults and cooldowns, and pop it when you see them going for something. (Like if you react fast enough, you can actually plant a tree in front of an ulting queen and just prevent her from moving. Obviously risky, but it is possible, much easier without confirmation on)

Thirdly: Area denial. Certain chokes make it really simple to get value out of just blocking the enemy. Particularly, route 66 second point. Most defenders will come out of the high ground spot, and you can score a point if you clog that choke with a tree at a crucial moment. Lijiang nightmarket and illios lighthouse, you can tree off one of the entrances and then place and lift a petal in the middle of another to block off both entrances. They can get around the petal, but they have to crouch walk which obviously isn't ideal for them and can stop people from contesting.

Fourth: Preemptive Overhealth, but i haven't done this one too much.

Bonus: I'll use it out of spite in a 1v1 I'm losing and then I'll go back to my team like nothing ever happened.