You can't beat shirlener's answer but welcome to a great site and people.
See the answer of shirlener and here is a *4U, Welcome to the clan of cute
Carlene, Shirlene certainly answered your question throughly, but I just wanted to say WELCOME and I am so glad to see you here! I have been waiting for you so I could give you this flower. ;)
Welcome to the "CUTE" family carlene,I am going to do a copy paste so that you get the full details: That is always the #1 question. Most of us really don't know - but we have learned that we can give and receive them - when you see an orange flower on the right side of the page - you can click on it and when it turns gray - that means that you have given that person a flower and one of their numbers will change under their name. I believe that the real answer would be best if I copy and paste it here for you from jrob: "Cuteembroidery.com is conducting testing at this time. Flowers will be used to provide new and additional benefits to users of Cuteembroidery.com." They seem to be a good thing to be collecting because my bouquet surely does smell good and look pretty. As for how you get them, you get one each day (once every 24 hour period) that you visit the site. We can now get them from others on this area of the site, and also in response to questions and answers and Cudo's for projects. And that's the short answer! I'm sending you one now. ;)" or from Ruthie: "Shirlene, I think you're like me, just simply give flowers to everyone you meet here, I love giving those flower away. The numbers *under* our avatar (left of page) mean - right number is our total flowers, the left number is for the number of questions we have answered, or in my case the number of chatterbox sessions I have had, haha!!! The numbers don't always update at the same time, I think it's something to do with how the page refreshes, but rest assured sweetie, when I give you a flower, and you give me one, they always reach their destination while they are still *fresh as a daisy*! Hugs and flowers to you all." And Ruthie says, "the flowers mean that this is the *Cutest* and sweetest-smelling site on the net! They were started by *Cute* as some sort of testing, and we've taken the flower giving to a new height by sharing them with all our friends here for whatever reason, or no reason at all, that we can think of. The names on the right of this page are just members the same as everyone else, but, in jrob's case, she's been here the longest, my name's there because I can talk more than anyone else, and I suspect most of the others are there for the same reason too, haha. The number on the far right of our avatar is the number of flowers that the beautiful people here have given to us. So welcome to our friendly site and hope you enjoy being here as much as we do. Hugs and flowers to everyone."
So there you have it in a nutshell, are you just happy that you asked? Hehehe! *4U