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

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

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

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

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

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.