Please note I live in South Florida, Zone 10,
T HE SUBTROPICS! Hot and WET!
Unforunately, I can't grow, or easily obtain fresh flowers common
in temperate zones such as tulips, daffodils, lily of the valley and such.

1. Get the freshest flowers, collected in the morning are the
best. QUICKLY (within 5-10 minutes) arrange the flowers or
plants on the newly cleaned scanner plate with the lid off.

2. Scan at a minimum of 300 dpi (for large flowers 3")
1200 dpi (for tiny flowers 1/4") and save as the
largest file size possible.
SAVE as a *.jpg or other format, where * is the flower name.

3. Resize picture to (640 X 480) or (1024 X 768) to save
file space and to make it a good wallpaper.
RESAVE

4. I retouch the background with Paintshop Pro 5.01
to flood Fill in the background color.
(tolerance set to (+/-) 17, opacity 100%, sample merged)
Black seems to make the flowers stand out best.
RESAVE

5. I use the despeckle filter next, and then the spray can
(zoom in at 3X or better, brush round and size 6) or
retouch tool to do a final cleanup of the speckles
and smooth any rough edges.
RESAVE

Tips and Tricks:

1. Place a small coin or object on the back of large flower petals
to hold them down to scanner plate.
2. Select an area slightly larger than needed for the flower scan, and
then later crop the image closer in to the flower using
Paintshop Pro. This seems to increase the magnification.