We hear flower placed where there was a small population (8)
I believe the answer is:
lilliput
'where there was a small population' is the definition.
(island of tiny people in Gulliver's Travels)
'we hear flower placed' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'placed' could be 'put' (I've seen this in other clues) and 'put' is found in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
(Other definitions for lilliput that I've seen before include "Fantastic place" , "fictional country" , "Land visited by Gulliver" , "Swift's fictional land of little people" , "Land to which Gulliver first traveled" .)