The album artwork was a collaboration between artist Brian Clarke, who painted the canvas and arranged the flowers, and Linda McCartney, who produced the cover photography.

[7] A series of Flowers in the Dirt paintings and arrangements were made, and the full set of collaborative photographs that produced the cover artwork were exhibited that same year at the Mayor Gallery in London.

[8][9] With the intention of launching the biggest tour of his career, McCartney assembled a band to take out on the road, and who would appear in various forms on Flowers in the Dirt.

The Paul McCartney World Tour opened on 26 September 1989 and featured concerts in Europe, North America, Japan and Brazil until the following July.

In June, Flowers in the Dirt was released to high anticipation and went to number 1 in the UK charts, garnering very positive reviews from all around.

In the US, the reaction was better than Press to Play, with the album reaching number 21, staying on the charts for a year and going gold, though it still sold beneath expectations.

[22] A limited-edition "World Tour Pack" of Flowers in the Dirt, sold in a facsimile trunk, was issued in Britain in October 1989, and America (with British catalogue numbers) in January 1990.

In a retrospective review for AllMusic, critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote of the album: "Paul McCartney must not only have been conscious of his slipping commercial fortunes, he must have realised that his records hadn't been treated seriously for years, so he decided to make a full-fledged comeback effort with Flowers in the Dirt.

[23] A remastered CD was released in 1993 as part of The Paul McCartney Collection with three bonus tracks: "Back on My Feet", "Flying to My Home" and "Loveliest Thing".

The album was re-issued on 24 March 2017, by Capitol Music Group as the tenth release in the ongoing Paul McCartney Archive Collection.

[24] Formats included a two-disc (CD) Special Edition (the second disc included McCartney and Costello's demos recorded prior to the album's sessions), a two LP vinyl edition, and a three disc (CD) and DVD Deluxe Edition Box Set that featured previously unreleased demos, unseen archival videos, a notebook of Paul's handwritten lyrics and notes, Linda McCartney Flowers in the Dirt Exhibition Catalogue, and a 112-page hardcover book documenting the making of the album.