Animal Crossing flower guide: How to breed hybrid flowers in New Horizons

Animal Crossing: New Horizons features loads of flower types to grow, and if you’re willing to put the effort in, there are some rare hybrid flowers that can be bred to really make your island shine.

Flowers are a longtime staple of the Animal Crossing franchise. At first glance, they may seem like little more than a pleasant way to make your island look pretty, but there’s actually quite a lot of depth to them for players who take the time to experiment.

It all comes down to cross-pollination, which essentially means that flowers of the same type that are planted next to each other can breed and — if you’re lucky — produce new hybrid colors that you won’t find naturally and can’t buy at Nook’s Cranny.

While this can be done through the process of trial-and-error in the game, it’s a lot easier when you know which flowers will work together to create the hybrid you want. That’s where our complete Animal Crossing flower breeding guide comes into play.

Flowers can brighten up your New Horizons island.

Breeding flowers in Animal Crossing New Horizons

Flowers are a simple yet essential element of any Animal Crossing game experience. Planting them can make your island look more attractive, and can also help you increase your island’s star level.

When you get a ladder in New Horizons, you’ll be able to climb the cliffs on your island and discover that you have a specific type of wildflower growing on it. This can be any of the following eight breeds:

Cosmos
Hyacinths
Lilies
Mums
Pansies
Tulips
Roses
Windflowers

You can get other breeds of flowers by picking them from your friends’ islands and replanting them on your own island, or by purchasing seeds from Timmy in Residential Services and later from Nook’s Cranny.

Growing new flowers is as simple as planting seeds and making sure you water them every day until they’re fully grown. You can use a watering can for this, but if it’s recently rained, you won’t even need to do that.

How to get hybrid flowers in Animal Crossing New Horizons

Hybrid flowers are sure to make your island stand out.

If you want to decorate your island with some more exciting flowers than those available as standard, you can utilize the crossbreeding method in Animal Crossing to get your hands on some unique hybrid flowers.

The easiest way to do this is to plant your parent flowers diagonally in a checkerboard pattern. Doing it this way, as opposed to planting them all in a row, provides optimal space for new hybrid flowers to grow.
Make sure your flowers are watered every day, either with a watering can or by the rain, and hybrid flowers will eventually grow in the empty spaces.
Once grown, you can dig them up and replant them elsewhere.

Here’s how to grow hybrid flowers in Animal Crossing:

Get seeds of your two chosen parent flowers, making sure they’re the same breed.

Plant them near each other in a diagonal checkerboard pattern.

Water them every day. You can skip this step if it’s raining.

Once the parents are fully grown, hybrid flowers should begin to grow!

We’d also recommend placing fencing around your flower patches, as that will stop you (or friends) from accidentally running through them and ruining your hard work. Fences also make your island look nicer!

Hybrid flowers list for Animal Crossing New Horizons

There are multiple ways to breed hybrid flower colors in Animal Crossing New Horizons, but we’ve listed the methods that are most likely to give you the result you’re looking for:

Cosmos

Hybrid Flower	Flower One	Flower Two
Orange	Yellow	Red
Pink	Red	White
Black	Orange	Orange

Hyacinths

Hybrid Flower	Flower One	Flower Two
Orange	Red	Yellow
Pink	Red	White
Blue	White	White
Purple	Orange	Orange

Lilies

Hybrid Flower	Flower One	Flower Two
Orange	Yellow	Red
Pink	Red	White
Black	Red	Red

Mums

Hybrid Flower	Flower One	Flower Two
Pink	White	Red
Purple	White	White
Hybrid Yellow	Red	Yellow
Hybrid Purple	Hybrid Yellow	Hybrid Yellow
Green	Hybrid Purple	Hybrid Purple

Pansies

Hybrid Flower	Flower One	Flower Two
Orange	Yellow	Red
Blue	White	White
Hybrid Red	Red	Blue
Hybrid Purple	Hybrid Red	Hybrid Red

Roses

Hybrid Flower	Flower One	Flower Two
Orange	Yellow	Red
Pink	Red	White
Black	Red	Red
Purple	White	White
Hybrid Pink	Purple	Red
Hybrid Red	Hybrid Pink	Yellow
Blue	Hybrid Red	Hybrid Red

Tulips

Hybrid Flower	Flower One	Flower Two
Orange	Red	Yellow
Pink	Red	White
Black	Red	Red
Purple	Orange	Orange

Windflowers

Hybrid Flower	Flower One	Flower Two
Pink	Orange	Red
Blue	White	White
Hybrid Red	Pink	Blue
Purple	Hybrid Red	Hybrid Red

How to get gold roses in Animal Crossing New Horizons

Gold Roses are hard to get but totally worth it.

As well as the hybrid flowers listed above, it’s also possible to get golden roses in New Horizons. These elusive flowers are very difficult to get, but they’re the perfect way to show off your top gardening skills.

You’ll first need to get a golden watering can DIY recipe, which will be given to you when your town gets a five-star evaluation from Isabelle.
Once you’ve crafted that tool, you’ll need to grow black roses by breeding red roses together.
After you’ve got a black rose, simply water it with your gold watering can, and you might have a gold rose to show off the next day!

For more detail on just how to do this, we’ve got a more in-depth guide for growing gold roses right here.

That’s everything you need to know about growing flowers and cross-pollinating to breed hybrid colors in Animal Crossing New Horizons.

For more tips and tricks to help you on your island, check out our list of guides:

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