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The group first formed in 1985 when Liam Ó Maonlaí and Fiachna ó Braonáin (who had known each other as children in a Gaelic-speaking school) began performing as street musicians, or buskers, on the streets of Dublin, Ireland as "The Incomparable Benzini Brothers." They were soon joined by Peter O'Toole, and had won a street-entertainer award within a year. They renamed the group "Hothouse Flowers" and began writing songs and performing throughout Ireland. Rolling Stone called them "the best unsigned band in Europe."
In 1986 Bono from the band U2 saw the Flowers performing on television and offered his support. They released their first single, Love Don't Work This Way, on U2's Mother Records label, which quickly led to a deal with the PolyGram subsidiary London Records.
Their first album, People was released in early 1988 and was the most successful debut album in Irish history. It reached the #1 slot in Ireland within a week and eventually reached #2 in England. The international success of the album received a great boost when a video for the first single, "Don't Go", was played in the interval between contestants and the scoring in the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest.
The second album, Home was released in June of 1990. It was recorded sporadically while in the midst of extensive touring, with sessions in Dublin, London, a rented house with a mobile recording setup in Carlow, Ireland and one day of work with Daniel Lanois in New Orleans while Bob Dylan was taking a break from his sessions with Lanois. The album did not have the overwhelming success of the first record, but it reached #2 in Australia. The two singles from the album, "Give It Up" and "I Can See Clearly Now" (a cover of the song performed by both Jimmy Cliff and Bill Withers) reached #30 and #23 respectively on the English charts.
Songs From the Rain was released in March of 1993. While it received excellent reviews and achieved some chart success in Australia and Ireland, worldwide sales were disappointing. In an attempt to boost record sales (and especially to break onto the American charts), the label and the band's management kept the group on the road almost continuously for the entire year. By early 1994, Liam had decided that the group was suffering from physical, mental and creative exhaustion, and he called for a year-long sabbatical.
The year-long break turned into several years, as the band members recouped their energy and experienced changes in their personal lives, including divorces, marriages, the birth of children and the death of Liam's father. The group also split from their long-time manager, and Leo Barnes (saxophones) and Jerry Fehily (drums) left the group. Peter and Fiachna spent some of their time off recording and touring with Michelle Shocked and Liam worked with Tim Finn and Andy White, while also studying traditional Irish music.
In 1998 they released Born. Joined by Wayne Sheehy on drums and Rob Malone on bass, this album contained extensive songwriting contributions from Peter O'Toole, who (freed from his bass responsibilities) played mostly guitar, bouzouki and keyboards on the record. The music also incorporated more elements of electronic loops, synthesizers and studio effects.
By 1999 they had reached the end of their contract with London Records, and both the label and the band decided not to renew. The label head allowed the group the rights to record songs from their past London releases and produce a live record. Live' was self-released by the group later that year, taken mostly from an October 1998 show in Dublin Stadium (with one track from a November show in Tokyo). Rob and Wayne left the group shortly after the release of the record. Dave Clarke, formerly of Blue in Heaven, joined on drums and Peter returned to bass.
In 2000 London Records released a compilation of songs from their four previous albums titled Best of.
During the band's official hiatus between Songs From the Rain and Born, Liam, Fiachna and Peter had both written songs individually and sporadically gotten together to write collaboratively. Some of these songs were never released, while others altered significantly to become some of the songs on Born. In 2003 the Flowers collected these unreleased recordings and issued them as Vaults:Volume 1.
In February 2004 the band released their latest album, Into Your Heart, produced by the band and John Reynolds. The first single, "Tell Me", reached the top 20 on the Irish charts. The record was released on the RubyMusic label in Europe and distributed by Redeye in the United States. They have toured extensively in support of the record, including a performance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2004.
Liam has done several tours as a solo acoustic performer and has released a solo album of Irish Sean-nos tunes in 2005 called Rian
