It was produced by a communal collective, with the main instigator being antiwar activist and former Smith College drama instructor Ed Felien.

The 16-page, two-color tabloid was published weekly (later biweekly) and cost 25 cents, circulating about 5,000 copies.

Founders, members of the staff collective, and contributors included SDS/gay activist Brian J. Coyle (who later became Minneapolis' first openly gay city council person), Warren Hanson (who later founded the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund and co-founded Fresh Air Community Radio aka KFAI-FM and Community Reinvestment Fund USA), Tom Utne (graphic artist & brother of Eric Utne, publisher of the Utne Reader), Richard Dworkin, Marly Rusoff (who later founded The Loft Literary Center), Ralph Wittcoff (a co-founder of the New Riverside Cafe), Rosemary Pierce, and many others.

[2][3] A financial breakdown published in an early issue reported that Hundred Flowers had to gross between four and five hundred dollars a week to break even, with about half the money coming from advertising and the other half coming from sales by casual street vendors, which were coordinated through three local head shops serving as distribution points.

[6] Beginning in 1970, the paper was published from offices above Liberty House (operated by Marv Davidov, founder of the Honeywell Project) at the corner of 6th Street and Cedar Avenue in the "West Bank" neighborhood near the University of Minnesota campus.