Yea, my first render ever…I figure I’ll put it up and watch it wither under a stream of critiques. 
Anyways, what the hey; here it is, comments welcome. 
Or, alternatively if you can’t see it, go to http://tapped.freewebpage.org/Flower.png (For some reason the clickable URL doesn’t work…it seems it must be PASTED into the addy bar).
It looks quite nice 
You should add a table or something under the vase though, and maybe another light (lowpower hemi-type is good for that) to add ambient light to the scene.
And render it bigger, with OSA (antialiasing, there’s a button labeled “OSA” under the “Render” button in the render section [F12]).
But it’s good for first render 
/me remembers the horrors that came out when he first started doodling with Blender…
Yay, it looks nice. Anyways, as far as the table, there should be a dark brown table-esque plain under it. Hmm…it seems to have been lost in the conversion to .png…
As far as rendering it bigger…I can’t seem to increase the render size. I’m on Mac OS X (Dunno if it makes a difference), and I’ve been wondering how to increase the size (It’s on “100%”, can’t seem to increase it past that).
EDIT
Err, wait, there’s the lil “Pixel Width/Pixel Height” buttons…nevermind. :-?
Here it is, but…BIG and OSA’d (Good tip that).
And the url: http://tapped.freewebpage.org/flowerbig.png
Next nifty little trick is the “set smooth” button in the Edit Buttons [F9]. You should apply that to the vase and the flower center (that is, if you want them to be smooth instead of blocky). Just select the appropriate mesh and click “set smooth”. You may want to try the “Auto smooth” button too.
But nevertheless, it’s nice, especially the flower itself… did you do it with the Halo-texture?
Also, raise the camera up a little bit so we can see a shot thats a little more from the top down than it is in profile. Great work!
You could also try subsurfacing the vase. Hit the subsurf button in the edit buttons (F9). Depending on the detail of your mesh, it could make it look a lot better. This is absolutly excellent for a first picture. I believe mine involved a blue cube or something.
Goo
Hmm, the Auto-smooth seems like something I want to use. I was wondering how to get the wrinkles (surfaces) out of the final render…
I’ll try subsurfacing as well; these are all really helpful.
Dunno about the camera angle; I’ll try it.
Hmm, I’m gonna have to try something else as well…a new project, yes, using these tips. Hell, that only took 40 mins; shouldn’t be too hard.
Oh, and yes, those are halos. Using the “Rings” option.
I used all of the suggestions; changed the view, and I smoothed it out (Nice! :D). Looks cool, methinks, for a speedy first project. I think I’ll try something else out; maybe with transparent something. Hmm…
Anyways, for your viewing pleasure:
Once again, the table is difficult to see. 
Oh well. The URL: http://tapped.freewebpage.org/flowerfinal.png
Thanks for the input!
Just add a hemi light with a low energy above the whole scene to light the table.
Ok, I finally took the low energy hemi advice after much prodding, and it worked well. Thanks.