Abstract Silver nanoflowers were synthesized by the hydrothermal route. Formation of Ag nanoparticles is confirmed from the UV–vis spectrum where the surface plasmon absorption maxima are observed at 415–454 nm. FE-SEM and TEM images revealed the formation of silver nanoflowers and the flower-like silver nanostructures are estimated using transmission electron microscopy. XRD confirms that the synthesized silver is highly crystalline with face centered cubic structure. The X-ray line broadening is studied by the modified forms of Williamson–Hall analysis. The Z-scan results reveal that the flower-like silver nanostructures exhibit the nonlinear susceptilibility as 1.14 × 10 −5 esu.