The invention relates to a gold nanoflower preparing method and the application of gold nanoflowers. The preparing method comprises the following steps that 1) under room temperature, polyphenol is added to water solution with the pH value of 7-12 to obtain mixed solution; 2) chloroauric acid and hydrogen peroxide are then added in sequence, shaking up is carried out to obtain reaction solution; 3) the reaction solution is centrifuged, supernatant is abandoned, and the gold nanoflowers are obtained after washing. The particle diameters of the gold nanoflowers obtained under different pH values are 50-200nm, stability is good, the gold nanoflowers can be used in a biological body as a medicine carrier and have good biocompatibility, the gold nanoflowers can be used in chemiluminescence analysis, the signal intensity of a luminal chemiluminescence system can be obviously enhanced, the gold nanoflowers can be used in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) analysis, and the sensitivity is better than that of spherical gold nanoparticles. The gold nanoflower preparing method has the advantages that raw materials are easy to get, reaction conditions are mild, efficiency is high, speed is high, and batch preparing and producing are benefited.