The Most Amazing 5 Flowers in the World flickr.com/photos/kacey five plus more…

To claim a spot in the Top 5 - okay…ten - of anything is a bold statement…

… and making a courageous assertion while following it up with the phrase “…in the world…” … means, you better be able to back it up….

so… to be one of the best flowers in the world… … you can’t be a shrinking violet …

fortunately…nature does all the talking…

flickr.com/photos/praziquantel 10 Night-Flowering Cereus Native to South America the cereus only flowers at night. The flowers are cactus blooms from only two-known species.

flickr.com/photos/lollie-pop 9 King Protea South Africa’s floral emblem Protea cynaroides are not the most common backyard flower. However, they are fast becoming a favourite among flower growers wherever these blooms will grow.

flickr.com/photos/90149669@N00 8 Kangaroo Paw Western Australia’s floral emblem Anigozanthos manglesii mimic the shape of the great OZ icon and fauna emblem, the kangaroo. They are seen more and more in cultivation but you can’t beat finding these beauties in their natural habitat.

flickr.com/photos/hisgett 7 Waratah Another Australian native Telopea speciosissima is found on the east side of the mainland. Great cool climate plants, waratahs are frost-tolerant and are the largest of the Australian native flowers.

www.eeb.ucla.edu 6 Hellaconia This tropical bloom from South America will infuse any garden as it splashes its vibrant colours around.

flickr.com/photos/aforero … well, that was the bottom five…

wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons 5 Sturt Desert Pea The final Australian native to make it to this list Swainsona formosa grows in the desert. The desert pea is a creeping plant that is hard to germinate because it has a very tough shell. However, many gardeners are now beginning to grow them successfully in home gardens.

flickr.com/photos/28481088@N00 4 Passionflower Brazil’s contribution to the list Passiflora edulis are the blooms of the Passionfruit vine. Once these flowers have been spent, the fruit will continue to grow and mature. This flower puts on such an amazing spectacle in preparation for the delicious harvest.

3 Starfish Plant Stapelia flavopurpurea are just one of more than 40 varieties of Asclepiada native to South Africa. This fascinating flower looks remarkably similar to a starfish but has so much colour and vibrancy about it that it had to make the list.

flickr.com/photos/kopibrian 2 Rafflesia arnoldii These flowers, native to Indonesia, can grow up to 80cm in diameter and could easily fit a grown man’s head inside the centre. Not that you would want to get that close – it smells like rotting meat.

flickr.com/photos/kaitea 1 Corpse Flower By far one of the hardest flowers to grow outside of its natural habitat, the Amorphophallus titanum hails from the rainforests of Sumatra. It flowers infrequently in its native state and even less in cultivation. The reason for it’s name – it smells like a rotting corpse (apparently!)

… to those flowers I missed… I am truly sorry… … there’s always next year!!!