That can be arranged

mind off dark days and high heating bills.

Women, in my experience, buy flowers for fun, to cheer themselves up or take folks' minds off the grimy patch on the wallpaper. Men buy them more for conscience-salving and always look a bit embarrassed carrying them.

There are times - new baby, new romance, guilty conscience, or visit to mum with your dirty washing - that you have to try

to look macho with a fistful

of freesias.

Once offered, flowers can either give the recipient days or even weeks of joy. Or they can flop within hours to be discarded along with the potato peelings. Some are so cheap you just know they're going to droop and some are thrust into cellophane in ugly mismatchings of colour, outside garages and groceries.

Some are gorgeous confections of beautifully balanced shapes and colours but they cost as much as a bottle of champagne without the guaranteed glamour and sparkle. For this week's consumer test, we bore in mind the buyer in a rush and on a budget, and set ourselves a humble ceiling of #4. We concentrated on carnations, the all-time favourite, but allowed a few other sprigs to creep in where the price looked right.

And we chose as our samplers people who really do appreciate the gift of a nice bunch of flowers.

The Cottage Homes Crookfur Estate at Newton Mearns provides a friendly, homely atmosphere to 160 people with either permanent residential, or respite care for people who worked in the fashion and department store industry.

You'll find there dignified old ladies with memories of Copeland & Lye, Rowans and Daly's and other shopping icons of Glasgow's trading past.

Although accommodation is excellent and the staff superb, they need support for their motto ''total care for life'', so keep them in mind for your Christmas charity donation or a bunch of

flowers. Our panel comprised Jean Rogerson, Jean Tennent, Helen Robertson, Robert Carlyle and Mary Rowan. Helen is the nursing manager; the rest are residents, and they all adore flowers.

We used deep pink carnations as a main theme, with a few extras.

Marks & Spencer #3.99

This was a very generous bunch of large-bloomed spray carnations in deep pink and after six days they were still looking extremely hale and hearty.

''These are beautiful,'' said Jean Rogerson. ''I'd like them in my room. Very fresh and pretty.''

Everyone agreed with her verdict and thought that although they were the most expensive of our selection, they were well worth the money.

9 out of 10

Micheleen, St Enoch's Square, mixed, bouquet, #3.50

This was a mix of carnations, spray chrysanthemums and a wee bit of greenery. It was beginning to look just a tiny bit sad around the leaves.

''It's all right,'' said Jean Tennent, ''but I don't think the colours are very well matched and it

doesn't look as fresh and bouncy as it ought.''

6 out of 10

Poppies and Posies, Argyle Street, backing on to Central Station Low Level, #3.98

This was a bunch of variegated deep pink carnations and deep red roses. After six days the roses were a disaster with unopened buds drooping dejectedly.

The carnations were okay. ''Oh dear, said Mary, ''this isn't very good, is it? Definitely dead, these roses, but we can keep the carnations for a while.''

3 out of 10

Flower seller stall at junction of Virginia Street and Argyle Street, four bunches of deep pink spray carnations, #2

The cheapest in our survey, but the four bunches didn't add up to any more than one Marks & Spencer bunch. They were alive and bright-looking after six days, but only a few of the buds

had opened.

''They're very pretty and I'm sure if we put them in a warm place they'll open up,'' said

Jean Rogerson optimistically.

7 out of 10

Somerfield, two bunches of special offer half-price mixtures of spray and full-size

carnations with white ''daisy'' spray chrysanthemums, total #2.98

One bunch alone wouldn't have filled a vase, but two was okay. They were looking reasonably fresh and the large pale pink carnations added a touch of luxury.

''I like a wee bunch of flowers in my room, and these look fine,'' hinted Robert. The pink and white combination met with approval

all round.

7 out of 10.

I have to add that I was recently given a splendid bunch of pink and white carnation sprays from Safeway, with flower food, and it is still buoyant after three weeks.

But did we give the flowers the proper treatment? And does it make a difference how the flowers are wrapped and sold?

For some specialist advice, I spoke to Carolynne Sorrell, who is chairman of the Scottish

Association of Flower Arrangement Societies.

The organisation has 10,000 members the length and breadth of Scotland and they held

their AGM in Edinburgh earlier this week.

''You must look after the flowers as you carry them home,

and protect them from the cold, the wind and the weather,'' Carolynne insisted.

Marks & Spencer helped by selling flowers double-wrapped

in an easy-to-carry transparent

plastic bag. Somerfield's came cellophaned and in an ordinary carrier bag. The others were wrapped in a ''pokey hat'' of paper and quite hard to carry through the tea-time crowds.

''The first thing you must do is re-cut the ends of the stalks, then plunge the flowers into deep water for a few hours, preferably overnight,'' advised Carolynne.

We had to confess that we

hadn't snipped the ends. oh dear.

''Give them flower food in the water, or soaked into your oasis, if you are using one,'' she said.

Marks & Spencer and Somerfield provided sachets of flower food with their selections. You can buy it in florist shops and it makes a noticeable difference in the condition of your blooms.

''Roses need special treatment,'' was the next suggestion. ''After you snip the ends of the stems, plunge them into about an inch of boiling water and count to 20. Then put them into deep cool water.''

We hadn't done that, so Micheleen's roses suffered. Carolynne reckons the flower seller sprays didn't open because they were affected by the cold on the way to the Cottage Homes, as well as having been in the open air all day. Cosseting might bring them round, but she was doubtful. ''It's not good for any flowers to be chilled,'' she explained.

Snip off drooping green leaves, she adds and don't ever let the water get green and smelly.

And remember - the slogan ''Say it with flowers'' was invented by the Americans in the 1920s. But it still works, whether you want to say sorry, I love you, or bring beauty and brilliance into the lives of the old, the unfit or the lonely this winter.