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Top 5 Most Expensive Flowers in the World

Flowers have always been considered a romantic gift for a loved one, as a pleasure for the eyes and the nose, they are a temporary luxury. Their frail beauty is a perfect combination of tragedy and romance, they are decadent in their lavish glory and impermanence, lasting only a few days before they wither and die. The rarer the flower, the more expensive this short lived gift becomes. Although it is not best to buy too cheaply when trying to woo someone with a bouquet, the following list pushes the financial boundaries far beyond the reach of your average romantic gesture.

5. £600 per pound – Saffron Crocus

Saffrom Crocus
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Saffron Crocus is 5th place in our list, which may come as a surprise to some, as it is neither a rare nor an expensive flower. A bouquet of Saffron Crocus would cost less than a dozen roses, for example. In spite of this however, Saffron Crocus does have a rightful place on the most expensive flowers list because its stamens are cultivated to produce the spice saffron, which is the most expensive spice in the world. Saffron costs $1,000 or around £600 per pound.

4. £80,000 – Bouquet consisted of white orchids, white lilies, moonflowers and the root of a 100 year old ficus

World's Most Expensive Wedding Bouquet
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4th place goes to the most expensive wedding bouquet of all time. The bouquet consisted of white orchids, white lilies, moonflowers and the root of a 100 year old ficus. However it is not just the flower content that made this bouquet so expensive, as it also contained 90 two-carat red ruby facets, nine one-carat diamonds, and a 21.6-carat star ruby. This is cheating a little bit, but it is still a horrendously expensive bouquet costing $125,000 or around £80,000. The bouquet is still on display on the 6th floor of the Ruby Plaza in Vietnam.

3. £3,000 per flower – Gold of Kinabalu Orchid

Kinabalu Orchid
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The Gold of Kinabalu Orchid, is an endangered species of orchid that can only be found in one small fenced off area in the Kinabalu National Park in Malaysia. This extremely rare flower costs up to $5,000, or £3,000 for just one stem at a time! This incredibly expensive flower is also a very impractical gift, unless of course the occasion falls between April and May, because that is the only time of year that the Gold of Kinabalu Orchid blooms.

2. £160,000 – Shenzhen Nongke Orchid

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The Shenzhen Nongke Orchid is a completely man-made flower that was developed during 8 years of research in agricultural science by its namesake Shenzhen Nongke Group in China. In 2005 the flower was sold at auction to an anonymous bidder for a jaw dropping 1.68 million Yuan, or £160,000. This completely unique Frankenstein flower remains the most expensive flower ever bought.

1. Priceless! – Kadupul Flower

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The Kadupul Flower is at the top of our list, even though it has never been sold for more than the other flowers in the list. The simple reason why the Kadupul Flower is the champion of the most expensive flowers in the world list is: it is completely priceless. No amount of money could ever buy this flower. It is so rare and so frail that it lives for only a few hours, and then dies. Even the local people of its native Sri Lanka seldom see this delicate beauty. Blossoming just before midnight and perishing before dawn, no one, neither orchid-lover nor oligarch, has yet been able to remove the flower from its stem to make a gift of it. Due to its incredibly short life span, this flower has become almost mythical in its status and is revered by many as the most desirable and valuable flower on earth.

Kadupul Flower
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Pol Roger Champagne tasting at Arena Flowers

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We were lucky to have Cassidy Dart from Pol Roger spend some time at Flowers HQ for a tasting session of some of their Champagnes (yep, it was a good afternoon!). Champagne is available on Arena Flowers, so it was great to have Cassidy share some of his insight into production of Champagne and some of the anecdotes related to Pol Roger (traditionally, Wintson Churchill’s favourite Champagne).

Cassidy was kind enough to send over his tasting notes.

Both champagne and flowers have long been touted as the ultimate in celebration, thus it was about time that the Arena Flowers team have a little tutored Pol Roger Champagne tasting, as Arena Flowers has been a Pol Roger fan since they started back in 2006.

The plan was to taste three champagnes from Pol Roger; the Brut NV, Vintage 2000 and Cuvee Sir Winston Churchill 1998.

After a little explanation of a few facts about the Champagne region (a total area of 35,000 hectares, which an annual total production of about 330 million bottles for the world) and a brief history of Pol Roger (one of the very few family owned Grand Marques left in Champagne) it was onto the most important part – tasting the Champagnes. Here are our tasting notes from the day:

Pol Roger Brut NV Champagne

Fresh, clean biscuity and apple nose – refined and elegant. It is dry, but not overly acidic, with a lovely interplay of clean fruit flavour, biscuity depth of flavour and a refreshing and long finsh. Extremely drinkable and enjoyable with balance and elegance being the defining features. So very easy to drink. Aged for at least 3 years before being disgorged.

Pol Roger Brut Reserve Champagne

Pol Roger Brut Vintage 2000

Immediate step up on the aromas; more brioche, red fruits and greater intensity. On the palate it is more biscuity, bready and much greater depth and flavour. Very long finish with the impression that it will keep over time. In fact it turns out that Pol Roger Vintage is in fact very long lived (1914 is a real favourite!).

Pol Roger Brut Vintage Champagne

Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill 1998
This is the prestige cuvée from Pol Roger, their top champagne named after their most famous devotee (who reportedly drunk over 10,000 bottles of Pol Roger in his lifetime- though he would have drunk Vintage; with his preferred vintages being the 1921, 1928 and 1945). This is truly a wine of Churchillean proportion; lots of body, texture and real power to it. Complex, magnificent and very long – made in the style that Churchill himself preferred; robust, mature and one to age, or if enjoyed now with the finest cuisine (Lobster anyone?).

Pol Roger Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill Vintage Champagne

Thank you Cassidy for coming over. It was a very fine way to spend an afternoon at work – sipping Champagne. My favourite part was learning about the remuers who walk the Pol Roger cellars daily, turning each bottle a small fraction at a time.

Silver Gilt Award Winning Flowers At Hampton Court Flower Show 2008! Gold in 2009?

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Sarah Holland is part of the crack team at the Flowers & Plants Association plus she also pops by every now and again to fill us in on the latest flower fashion trends, arrangement tips and to answer any questions you may have about flowers or plants. Our ‘Bouquets of Emotion‘ helped the FPA to win a Silver Gilt Award at the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show a couple of weeks ago. Here’s Sarah’s story from the front line…

Death, disaster, delight… ok, so the show wasn’t that dramatic, but perhaps the meanings of flowers can be.

We did have flooding, the threat of electrocution as water dripped onto a live mic, a stand so busy we couldn’t get to it ourselves in the morning, and a silver-gilt medal for our efforts… but what we were actually showing was the variety and crazy nature of meanings of flowers from around the world, or that a particular person assigns to them.

The Flowers & Plants Association took our customary demonstration stand at the show, which we’ve done since the show’s existence. Our aim is to educate, inspire and promote flowers to the audience who come along and watch the designer demonstrations, and throughout the years we’ve created fantastic stands to showcase our theme for that year.

We were in the ‘International Language of Flowers’ marquee, a totally new idea in a totally new location, which sat really well with our summer fashion flower trend, ‘Talking Flowers’. We produce four seasonal trends a year to show you what’s happening in the world of flower fashion. “Flower fashion?” I hear you say, “Don’t I just get what I like?” Well, this is exactly what ‘Talking Flowers’ is about – using flowers in a way that is personal to you, to create meanings of your own. That means creating fun pieces of flower jewellery and wearing them just because you feel like it, or making big heart-shaped arrangements for the one you love.

Our trends are actually consciously based on trends in interiors and the catwalk, but that doesn’t mean we have flowers tottering around in high heels – but we do have pictures of flowers inside high heels, or even in wellies, or worn as a dress. The trends are about what colours, shapes and styles are hip right now – but they never lose the emotional message of flowers, either.

One way we showcased this was to get a super-talented team of florists at Arena Flowers to come up with a range of ‘Bouquets of Emotion’ – whether it was jealousy, passion, fear or loneliness. We had quirky designs, such as a bouquet in the shape of two bespectacled eyes for our ‘Stalker’ bouquet, and a gorgeous yin and yang design of white roses and peonies for our ‘Soulmate’ bouquet. The bouquets were stunning, really popular with the visitors, and really showed how creative you can be with the emotional messages flowers can convey. The lucky staff at the Flowers & Plants Association also got ‘the pick of the bunch’ at the end of the show – my bedroom is now bursting with my favourite flowers, roses, that are still going strong after a week in a hot marquee! See some pictures of the Arena Flowers bouquets on the F&PA site here.

To recognise the brilliant work by our super talented senior florists, Andrew and Judith, Arena gave them both a bottle of our vintage Pol Roger champagne. Congratulations to them both!

We also showed the sometimes bizarre, sometimes untrue meanings of flowers on our ‘Tree of Knowledge’, which displayed colourful tags of meanings of flowers from around the world. Some visitors even added their own meanings – you can see the full list on our website.

The most cutting-edge design was demonstrated every day by florists who’ve joined up to the Association as a member. Taran Vernon showed Indian design, Rosa Ashby showed modern flower design, Linda Day showed typical Spanish design, and Tracey Griffin, Hans Haverkamp, and Sarah Horne showed European flower design.

If you want more inspiration from the summer fashion flower trend, you can see over 80 fun, fast, fashionable designs to express your own meaning of flowers at our website.

Similar posts: If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy this one about the first day of the Hampton Court Flower Show.

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