valleylynn said: 
Question. After seeing that beautiful photo of a zinnia/dahlia?, how would you get a depth of field that would show the detail from the front to the back of the flower. All of it in perfect focus.
Exactly. "All of it" --whatever I want--in perfect focus! The Quest that led to my edification about f-stops and depth of field.
Part of me wants to explain why you can't have "all of it" in perfect focus, but maybe you can
I shared how and what I learned in the thread
The thread "How I learned about f-stops" in
Photography Tips & Techniques forum
meanwhile, this isn't a macro or even a close up, but rather I am about seven feet away from this mum with just a bit of morning sun coming thru the giant tree and this is cropped from the larger image
f/13; 1/400sec; ISO-200; 240mm (360mm)
Regarding weedwhacker's question about macro lenses--I don't have one yet but I'm getting one soon (I hope) because I want one! There must be an advantage over the zoom lens that I have been using and I'm anxious to find out
