The selection of flowers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons is larger than what you'll find in Nook's Shop. As in previous titles, you can crossbreed them to create hybrid flower colors to spruce up your island however you see fit!
Before we get to the myriad of flower color combinations you can play with, let's find out how to crossbreed your flowers and an effective planting strategy to get the most out of your efforts.
How to Get Hybrid Flowers in Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Hybrid flowers can only be obtained in two ways:
There are eight flower types in the game, all with their own base 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 – Blanc, rouge, orange
- Cosmos – Red, White, Yellow
- Pansies – Red, White, Yellow
- Mums – Red, White, Yellow
- Lily – Red, white, yellow
Flowers can only interbreed with their own type, which means you can't cross white lilies with red roses and expect a pink hybrid.
How to cross flowers
In order for the flowers to intersect, you need to make them fulfill a few conditions:
If you are looking to get several of a particular hybrid color, you should consider planting the two parent plants diagonally from each other to allow maximum space for the new plants.
Don't be like me when I started and do it right!
You should also make sure the area around the plants is free of weeds or other obstructions.
There are a few planting strategies you can use to get multiple hybrids at once, but a common strategy can be seen below. Flower 1 represents the first color you want to reproduce and flower 2 represents the second color.
| Herbe | Flower 1 | Herbe |
| Flower 2 | Herbe | Flower 1 |
| Herbe | Flower 2 | Herbe |
With luck, both colors will spawn flowers that are the hybrid color you want in the Grass panels.
You can scale the model above well beyond 3x3, the above is just to give you an idea of how to do this.
It is possible for spawned flowers to appear as their parent colors, so you want to give as many possibilities for hybrid colorations as possible.
How to Move Hybrid Flowers
It really works with any flower, so keep that 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've planted it in your inventory and know where you want to place it, just select it in your inventory and plant it. It really is that simple!
New Horizons Hybrid Flower Combinations
Now let's talk about the possible flower color combinations you can make using all of the above.
Each type of flower has its own potential hybrid colorations. I admit I haven't come across them all (I think?) but here are the ones I have confirmed, sorted by flower.
As a reminder, it is quite possible to simply obtain the parental colors when crossing. This is why trainings like the one shown above are so effective!
Tulip hybrids
- White + Red = Pink
- Red + Red = Black
- Yellow + red = orange
- Orange + Orange = Purple
Rose hybrids
- White + Red = Pink
- Yellow + red = orange
- Red + red = pink or black
- White + White = Purple
To get blue roses you must:
There is no indicator whether a red rose is a hybrid or not, so plan your plant layout carefully so that there are no other red roses in the area that are not hybrids. provided or the parent if you take the purple + red route.
Hyacinth Hybrids
- White + Red = Pink
- White + White = Blue
- Yellow + red = orange
- Orange + Orange = Purple
- Pink + Pink = Blue
Sunflower hybrids
- Red + white = pink
- Orange + red = pink
- Pink + Pink = Purple
- White + White = Blue
Hybrid Cosmos
- Red + white = pink
- Yellow + red = orange
- Orange + Orange = Black
Pansy Hybrids
- Yellow + red = orange
- White + White = Blue
- Blue + Orange = Blue
Similar to getting blue roses, you will need to create hybrid orange pansies to get purple pansies. To do this:
Maman Hybirds
- Red + Red = Pink
- White + Red = Pink
- White + White = Purple
- Pink + Pink = Purple
- Purple + Purple = Green
Lily Hybrids
- White + Red = Pink
- Red + Red = Black
- Yellow + red = orange
-
There are more mysteries to unravel in Animal Crossing: New Horizons than just crossing flowers, but it's definitely one of the most aesthetically pleasing aspects of island customization and it's rewarding to do well.
Check out some of our other New Horizons guides here on GameSkinny, such as:
