Animal Crossing Flower Breeding: A Complete Guide To Every Flower

In our complete Animal Crossing Flower Breeding Guide, we’re going to go through how to get flower seeds, what patterns to plant them in to spawn more flowers, how to cross breed them to get unique colors and more!

What Kind Of Flowers Can I Get?

In Animal Crossing flower breeding is fun, since there are 8 unique types of flowers you can that you can either find on your island or plant on your island.

• Windflowers
• Tulips
• Mums
• Roses
• Pansies
• Lillies
• Hyacinths

Where Can I Get Flowers?

When you first begin your adventure on your island, you will have limited ways to obtain flowers or seeds. You will have one specific flower that is native to your island, which will grow on cliffs and elevations.

You can’t access higher elevations until Tom Nook gives you the DIY recipe for a ladder when you start to furnish homes for soon-to-be villagers.

You will also find flowers growing on Mystery Islands. Mystery Islands can be accessed using your Nook Miles you earn doing different tasks around your island.

Typically, you will only find the same flowers native to your island or the ones sold on your island on Mystery Islands. But, you may get lucky and come across a rare island with special flowers.

Once you get the DIY ladder recipe, you can climb up the cliffs and dig up the flowers to plant in other parts of the island. Make sure you dig up the flowers with a shovel. If you pick up the flowers with your hand, it will only give you the actual flower and not the plant itself.

Where Can I Get Seeds?

If you want new types of flowers on your island, you can buy seeds from Tommy and Timmy to plant. You can plant seeds almost anywhere on your island, besides where a building is or near the ocean.

Seeds will grow in a few days after they are planted. The more your island grows (and Timmy and Tommy’s store grows), the more selection of flowers and colors you will have.

• Timmy in the Resident Services Tent: 3 Different Seeds, 3 Kinds Of Flowers – 1 Color For Each Flower
• Nook’s Cranny Store: 6 Different Seeds, 3 Kinds Of Flowers – 2 Colors For Each Flower
• Nook’s Cranny Store (Remodeled): 9 Different Seeds, 3 Kinds Of Flowers – 3 Colors For Each Flowers

If you have other friends that play ACNH, you can also visit their island to see if there are seeds sold in Nook’s Cranny that are not sold on your island. Your friends may even have a native flower you do not have yet. If you’re lucky, they may let you snag a few to take home!

Once you plant your seeds or flowers, you can sprout new flowers by watering them with a Watering Can. You can check on them once a day and you may have a new flower sprouted on any side of your original flower. Keep in mind if you only plant one flower, the new one will be the same color as the original.

“But I want new colors!”. Don’t worry, that’s our next topic. After all, this is a complete Animal Crossing Flower Breeding Guide!

How Can I Get Rare Colors?

Even though each flower type only has 3 basic colors, you can plant different colors of the same plant species and water them to create rare colors. How exciting! These rare colors cannot be bought or obtained any other way, unless they are gifted by a friend.

When a flower is watered, it can grow a new plant anywhere near it within a 5×5 grid area. This is a large area, so you may want to focus on breeding 1 specific color within this grid if you’re looking for a certain colored result. If a flower of the same species, but another color, is planted nearby, they can breed and create a new color. An example of the planting pattern is pictured below.

Creating A Planting Grid

This is considered to be the “most effective” breeding pattern. When you’re wanting new plants to sprout, always leave room for them to grow. If you plant all the plants directly on top of each other, there will be no more for any more to grow.

When planting your first row, try to skip every other space. When you start your second row below that one, plant the next ones directly underneath the spaces you just skipped above. Then on your third row, plant in the same pattern you planted the first row. Follow this same pattern for as many rows as you plant.

This creates an effective, organized pattern to optimize space on your island, but it leaves plenty of room for new flowers to grow.

I highly recommend using fencing for the areas you designate for flower breeding. It helps set a perimeter for you to follow and keep track of what flowers go in what area so you don’t get confused.

Just keep in mind that wherever you place fencing or other items, flowers can’t grow there. But, it creates a beautiful garden and helps you stay organized!

Once you have created your grid for your flowers (it can be anywhere from 2×2 to 5×5), you have an extremely important step!

Be sure to water your plants with your watering can! I would personally recommend watering them the second you are done creating your grid each time. After that, water your plants every day. Of course when it rains, it does water your flowers and you can skip that day.

Hybrid Flower Growing Times

There is no set time when or if a hybrid flower will grow. I’ve had a hybrid flower grow the day after I planted them (pink roses). I’ve also had hybrid flowers take 2 weeks to bloom (blue Hyacinths). If you check back on your flowers and an unwanted color has sprouted, simply dig up the unwanted flower. It still has a very high chance of sprouting a hybrid color in the same exact spot. In Animal Crossing flower breeding is a luck of the draw, so don’t fret!

Just remember there seems to be a certain percentage of hybrid colors sprouting. There’s no rhyme or rhythm to it besides planting the designated colors needed to cross-breed. Just pure luck!

Hybrid Flower Color Breeding Charts

I’ve listed below all 8 types of flowers and the combinations you can put together to produce rare colors. Keep in mind once again that some hybrid colors are more rare than others.

This means it may take you multiple tries with the same combinations to get the color you are looking for. But it’s worth all the work!

Mums

Mums come in 3 standard colors: Red, Yellow and White. But, you can cross-breed them to create Green, Pink and Purple!

• Parent Colors
• Red & White
• White & White
• Purple & Purple

• Hybrid Color
• Pink
• Purple
• Green

Windflowers

Windflowers come in 3 standard colors: Red, Orange and White. But, you can cross-breed them to create Blue, Pink and Purple!

• Parent Colors
• Red & Orange
• White & White
• Blue & Blue
• Blue & Pink

• Hybrid Color
• Pink
• Blue
• Purple
• Purple

Hyacinths

Hyacinths come in 3 standard colors: Red, Yellow and White. But, you can cross-breed them to create Blue, Pink, Orange and Purple!

• Parent Colors
• Red & Yellow
• Red & White
• White & White
• Red & Red
• Blue & Blue
• Orange & Orange

• Hybrid Color
• Orange
• Pink
• Blue
• Blue
• Purple
• Purple

Tulips

Tulips come in 3 standard colors: Red, Yellow and White. But, you can cross-breed them to create Black, Pink, Orange and Purple!

• Parent Colors
• Red & White
• Red & Yellow
• Red & Red
• Orange & Orange
• Black & Black

• Hybrid Color
• Pink
• Orange
• Black
• Purple
• Purple

Roses

Roses come in 3 standard colors: Red, Yellow and White. But, you can cross-breed them to create Blue, Gold, Black, Pink, Orange and Purple!

• Note: Any Roses with a * next to them require “special” versions of those colors of parents to create that color. These “special” versions can be created by breeding 2 of the same color together and sprouting the same color nearby.
• You can only get Gold Roses with a Golden Watering Can, which you can obtain once your island reaches a 5 star rating.

• Parent Colors
• Red & White
• Red & Yellow
• White & White
• Red* & Red*
• Red* & Red*
• Orange* & Orange*
• Purple* & Purple*
• Black & Black

• Hybrid Color
• Pink
• Orange
• Purple
• Black
• Blue
• Blue
• Blue
• Gold

Pansies

Pansies come in 3 standard colors: Red, Yellow and White. But, you can cross-breed them to create Blue, Red, Orange and Purple!

• Note: Any Pansies with a * next to them require “special” versions of those colors of parents to create that color. These “special” versions can be created by breeding 2 of the same color together and sprouting the same color nearby.

• Parent Colors
• Red & Yellow
• White & White
• Blue & Red
• Blue & Orange
• Red* & Red*
• Orange* & Orange*
• Blue & Blue

• Hybrid Color
• Orange
• Blue
• *Red
• *Orange
• Purple
• Purple
• Purple

Lilies

Lilies come in 3 standard colors: Red, Yellow and White. But, you can cross-breed them to create Pink, Orange and Black!

• Parent Colors
• Red & White
• Red & Yellow
• Red & Red

• Hybrid Color
• Pink
• Orange
• Black

Cosmos

Cosmos come in 3 standard colors: Red, Yellow and White. But, you can cross-breed them to create Pink, Orange and Black!

• Parent Colors
• Red & White
• Red & Yellow
• Red & Red
• Orange & Orange

• Hybrid Color
• Pink
• Orange
• Black
• Black

How To Get Gold Roses & Lilies Of The Valley

Gold Roses are one of the rarest flowers you can get in ACNH.

Once you get a 5 star evaluation on your island from Isabelle, she will give you a DIY recipe for a Golden Watering Can. This recipe involves gold nuggets, so make sure you save them up! Sadly, these watering cans also break.

Once you use the above chart to breed Black Roses, you can plant them in a grid and water them with the Golden Watering Can. This will give you a chance to sprout Golden Roses! If you pluck them, you can use them for special DIY recipes.

Lilies Of The Valley

The Lily Of The Valley is a very rare flower in Animal Crossing. It cannot be purchased or bred. The flower only makes an appearance once your island reaches a 5 star island evaluation.

The longer your island remains at a 5 star rating, the more Lily Of The Valley’s will grow along your cliffs and elevations!

Thanks for reading! Be sure to check out all of our Game Guides!