You may need to experiment on getting the camera to focus where you want it to.
Take the flower pix, for instance. You will want it to focus 1/3 of the distance between the flowers for maximum depth of field. But, the camera doesn't 'see' anything there, so it doesn't want to focus there.
So try this: Frame your shot, then step back the distance from the near flower to the 1/3 distance between them. Press the shutter release part way down, to get it to focus. Keep your finger on the release, and move back to where you started. This might well keep the camera focused where it set itself, and when you move back that focus point is now where you want it..... 1/3 of the distance between the flowers.
This doesn't work for every P&S, but it's worth a try.