Being female I love to receive flowers as a gift - not an exclusively female trait I know, but it goes with the territory - like chocolate! They look so lovely when they are fresh and bursting with life and colour, it seems such a shame that they don't survive for longer. There are ways you can get round that though so you can enjoy them for a much longer time.

One of my favourite methods is to press them. I know it's seen as something of a Victorian hobby, but I use them for all sorts of things combining old and new. I use a microwave flower press wherever possible using only the best of the flowers, sometimes even raiding the arrangement before it's past it's best. If you don't have one of those presses, just use a reasonably heavy book (or even two) and place the flower between two sheets of paper to protect the book. It does take a while but you can hurry it along by placing the books in an airing cupboard - but don't do that with any books you treasure - they might just curl! Once they are dry I use them on cards or my current favourite is to laminate them in plastic and make bookmarks, coasters or gift tags. Now that you can get home laminators relatively cheaply it's a new way of using them.

You can also air dry them but for this you really must start before the flowers are fully open and it doesn't work for all blooms, you need to test them out in an ideal world. Tie the flowers into a bunch with some string and make a loop out of the ends of the string. Hang that in a sunny spot in the house with the heads of the flowers hanging down. It will take a few weeks for them to dry then you can use them as you wish.

Perhaps the thing I find most satisfying is to strike cuttings from some of the flowers, this is only possible with some varieties - Chrysanthemums do very well. If I spot a likely candidate when the flowers arrive, I will nip off the relevant bit and dunk it in the rooting powder and pop it in a pot, that way I have a permanent reminder of the lovely flowers and the kind soul who sent them to me.

Sometimes, it isn't flowers that you get, but a plant and in the winter months I often think these are the best value, but they do need to be taken care of. The poor plants are often a little traumatised by the journey so they will need some TLC by way of water and food. They often need repotting fairly swiftly as well, but by taking just a little bit of care you have a lovely plant that will go on for years.

One last quick tip, if your flowers start to wilt - give them some lemonade instead of water, it often revives them!