A corpse flower blooms for the first time in 12 years A 2.5 meters corpse flowers blooms at the United States botanic garden for the first time in 12 years. Originally from Sumatra, Indonesia, the flowers take a lot of time to bloom and collapse in 24 to 48 hours, as they need to store a lot of energy to open up. This year, three corpse flowers have bloomed in the last 10 days at the botanic garden, a first in the history of the plant in the country.