How to get different flowers - Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Published , by Josh Hawkins

Flowers are one of the easiest ways to add a little color to your island. As you work to build up your rating and make your new home more appealing, you’re probably going to find yourself wondering how to get new flowers. To help you out, we’ve put together this handy guide with more details on how to obtain new breeds of flowers, and even how to crossbreed them together to create rare, hybrid breeds and new colors.

How to get more flowers

Every island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons starts off with a specific type of flower that is available around the island. For some these flowers might be Lilies, while others will find themselves with Mums, Tulips, or even Windflowers as their native flower type. No matter what you start off with, though, there are plenty of ways to get more.

You can purchase bags of new flower seeds from other player's islands.

Players will find that there are a total of eight types of flowers available in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. These eight types include:

While players will have a native type of flower on their island at first, you’ll also be able to purchase some additional flower types from Nooks Cranny after you build it. Because of this, one of the best ways to obtain new flowers is to travel to a friend’s island and purchase new flower breeds from their shop. Unfortunately, this also requires them to have a different native type than you do, which can sometimes be a bit tricky.

If purchasing flowers from your friend’s island doesn’t work out, then you can always opt for the more annoying option. Once you’ve obtained enough Nook Miles, you can actually purchase Nook Miles Tickets. These will allow you to travel to random mystery islands, where you can fish, catch bugs, and even find additional flower types. It’s one of the more effective ways to get new flower breeds, but it will require a lot of luck, and some grinding for Nook Miles.

How to crossbreed flowers

If you’re looking to unlock new color variations of certain flowers, then that is where crossbreeding comes into play. Because this is an entirely different area of expertise, we’ve broken it down into its own section within this guide.

Make sure to give your flowers plenty of room to breed. Placing different flowers next to each other can mess up the crossbreeding process.

The basics of crossbreeding are fairly simple. First, set up a small area for your flower garden. We recommend separating each section into at least 5x5 block wide area. This will allow you plenty of room for crossbreeding. We also recommend sectioning off these areas with fences, as flowers will grow outside of the designated area if they aren’t blocked from spawning. If you want more room for crossbreeding, then you can forego the fencing. It just allows you to keep things more contained.

Next, you’re going to want to set your flowers up in a checkerboard-like pattern. Similar to how we have set things up in the image below.

Every empty section is a spot for a crossbred flower to grow.

When you’ve done this, grab your Watering Can and water the flowers to help them grow and pollinate. If you’ve mixed together two correct colors, then you’ll be able to grow new hybrid colors. To help make crossbreeding easier, we’ve included a handy table of different color sets below. You can also check out a community-driven guide right here.

Flower Crossbreeding Guide
Base Flower Type Parent Flower Colors Breeding Result
Lily Red + Red Black
Lily Yellow + Red Orange
Lily Red + White Pink
Mums White + White Purple
Mums Purple + Purple Green
Mums White + Red Pink
Roses Red + Red Black
Roses Red + White Pink
Roses White + White Purple
Roses Purple + Orange Hybrid Red
Roses Yellow + Red Orange
Roses Black + Water with Golden Watering Can Gold
Roses Hybrid Red + Hybrid Red Blue
Windflowers Orange + White Blue
Windflowers White + White Blue
Windflowers Orange + Red Pink
Windflowers Blue + Pink Purple
Windflowers Blue + Blue Purple
Hyacinths Blue + Blue Purple
Hyacinths White + White Blue
Hyacinths Red + White  Pink
Hyacinths Red + Yellow Orange
Cosmos Red + Red Black
Cosmos Red + White Pink
Cosmos Yellow + Red Orange
Tulips Red + Yellow Orange
Tulips Red + White Pink
Tulips Red + Red Black
Tulips Black + Black Purple
Tulips Orange + Orange Purple
Pansies White + White Blue
Pansies Red + Red Purple
Pansies Blue + blue Purple
Pansies Yellow + Red Orange
Pansies Red + Red Purple

Now that you know how to get more flowers, be sure to check out our Animal Crossing: New Horizons guide for even more handy information.