The World’s Rarest Flower Only Grows in Two Locations Around the World



“Middlemist’s Red” — also known as the spring rose — is the world’s rarest flower, as just two of the precious plants exist: one in New Zealand and one in the UK. Named after John Middlemist, who collected it in China in 1804, the flower could only be found in the stately English homes of well-off families who could afford to buy them. How the spring rose was wiped out from its native home in China or how one specimen found its way to New Zealand and survived there for nearly two centuries are mysteries that will likely remain. Geraldine King, the gardener at Chiswick House & Gardens in the UK, says that a couple of centuries ago, when the Duke of Devonshire owned Chiswick House, he sold clippings from the flower for about £3,200 ($4,400). Although the word “red” is literally in its name, Middlemist’s Red is actually a deep pink color.