Animal Crossing: New Horizons Flower Breeding Guide

The selection of flowers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is larger than you’ll find in Nook’s shop. Like in previous titles, you can crossbreed them to create hybrid flower colors to spruce up your island as you see fit!

Before we get to the myriad of flower color combinations you can play with, we’re going to get into how to get your flowers to crossbreed and an effective planting strategy for making the most of your efforts.

How to Get Crossbreed Flowers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Crossbred flowers can only be obtained via two ways:

1. Crossbreeding flowers yourself
2. Digging them up with a shovel on Nook Miles adventures or friends’ islands, then planting them back home

There are eight types of flowers in the game, all of them with their own basic colors as well as potential hybrid colors.

The flowers and their basic colorations are as follows:

• Tulips — Red, white, yellow
• Roses — Red, white, yellow
• Hyacinths — Red, white, yellow
• Windflowers — White, red, orange
• Cosmos — Red, white, yellow
• Pansies — Red, white, yellow
• Mums — Red, white, yellow
• Lilies — Red, white, yellow

Flowers can only crossbreed with their own type, meaning you can’t cross white lilies with red roses and hope for a pink hybrid.

How to Crossbreed Flowers

In order to get flowers to crossbreed, you need to have them meet a few conditions:

1. They must be flowers that are the same type and compatible hybrids
2. The two flowers must be touching, and there must be space around them for new flowers to sprout
3. Both flowers must be watered or rained on (hydrated flowers will sparkle)

If you’re looking to get several of a particular hybrid color, you should consider planting the two parent plants diagonally from one another to grant maximum space for new plants.

Don’t be like me when I first started, and do it right!

You should ensure the area around the plants is free from weeds or other obstacles as well.

There are a few planting strategies you can use to get multiple hybrids at a time, but a common one can be seen below. Flower 1 stands for the first color you want to breed, and Flower 2 stands for the second color.

With luck, the two colors will spawn flowers that are the hybrid color you want in the Grass panels.

You can spread the above pattern out well past 3×3, the above is just to give you an idea of how to do it.

It is possible for spawned flowers to come out as their parent colors, so you want to give as many possibilities for hybrid colorations as you can.

How to Move Hybrid Flowers

This really works with any flower, so keep it in mind.

All you have to do to pick up a flower and move it is dig it up by the roots with your shovel, after which it will be in your inventory.

Once you have a plant in your inventory and know where you want to place it, just select it in your inventory and plant it. It’s really that easy!

New Horizons Hybrid Flower Combinations

Now let’s talk about the possible combinations of flower colors you can make using all of the above in mind.

Each type of flower has its own potential hybrid colorations. I’ll admit I haven’t come across all of them (I think?) but here are the ones I have confirmed, sorted by flower.

As a reminder, it is very possible to simply get the parent colors when crossbreeding. This is why formations such as the one shown above are so effective!

Tulip Breeding Combinations

• White + Red = Pink Tulip
• Red + Red = Black Tulip
• Yellow + Red = Orange Tulip
• Orange + Orange = Purple Tulip

Rose Breeding Combinations

• Red + Red = Black Rose or Pink Rose
• Red + Yellow = Orange Rose
• Red + White = Pink Rose
• White + White = Purple Rose
• Yellow + Black = Orange Rose
• Orange + Purple = Hybrid Red Rose
• Orange + White = Hybrid Red Red
• Purple + Red = Hybrid Red Rose
• Hybrid Red + Hybrid Red = Blue Rose

You may have to attempt to breed Blue Roses using several different parent pairs to find one that can spawn them, as not even all Hybrid Red Roses are guaranteed to be able to spawn Blue Roses. Try and try again!

Hyacinth Breeding Combinations

• White + Red = Pink Hyacinth
  
• White + White = Blue Hyacinth
• Yellow + Red = Orange Hyacinth
• Orange + Orange = Purple Hyacinth
• Pink + Pink = Blue Hyacinth
• Wild Blue + Wild Blue = Purple Hyacinth

*Wild Blue Hyacinths are found on islands and are not the same genetically as the Blue Hyacinths you can breed.

Windflower Breeding Combinations

• Red + White = Pink Windflower
• Orange + Red = Pink Windflower
• White + White = Blue Windflower
• Blue + Red = Hybrid Red Windflower
• Blue + Pink = Hybrid Red or Hybrid Pink Windflower
• Hybrid Red + Hybrid Red = Purple Windflower
• Hybrid Red + Hybrid Pink = Purple Windflower
• Hybrid Pink + Hybrid Pink = Purple Windflower

Cosmos Breeding Combinations

• Red + White = Pink Cosmos
• Yellow + Red = Orange Cosmos
• Orange + Orange = Black Cosmos

Pansy Breeding Combinations

• Yellow + Red = Orange Pansy
• White + White = Blue Pansy
• Blue + Red = Hybrid Red Pansy
• Blue + Orange = Blue Pansy or Hybrid Orange
  
• Hybrid Red + Hybrid Red = Purple Pansy
• Hybrid Orange + Hybrid Orange = Purple Pansy

Mum Breeding Combinations

• Red + Red = Pink Mum
• White + Red = Pink Mum
• White + White = Purple Mum
• Red + Yellow = Hybrid Yellow
• Hybrid Yellow + Hybrid Yellow = Hybrid Purple Mum
• Hybrid Yellow + Hybrid Yellow = Green Mum
• Hybrid Purple + Hybrid Purple = Green Mum
• Pink + Pink = Purple Mum
  
• Purple + Purple = Green Mum
  

Lily Breeding Combinations

• White + Red = Pink Lily
• Red + Red = Black Lily or Pink Lily
• Yellow + Red = Orange Lily

—

There are more mysteries to unravel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons than just flower crossbreeding, but it’s certainly one of the most aesthetically pleasing aspects to island customization and is rewarding to pull off well.

Check out some of our other New Horizons guides here on GameSkinny, such as:

• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Change Roof and Mailbox Colors
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Get Iron Nuggets
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Make Bells Fast
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Get the Pole Vault
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Get a Mirror
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Catch Fish
  
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Plant Fruit and Pricing Guide
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Time Travel
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: Turnip Buying and Selling Guide
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Sleep
• Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Save