flower

the flower of - the finest individuals out of a number of people or things.

☞ Middle and early modern English did not recognize the modern distinction in spelling and sense between flower and flour, and the earliest instances of this expression relate to the sense that in modern English would be spelt flour, referring to the finest part of the wheat.

2011New York Times In this hecatomb along the minor rivers of Flanders and Picardy, the British people lost the cream of their working class and the flower of their aristocracy.

hearts and flowers: seeheart.