Flower



Flowers are decorative items occurring in all Animal Crossing games; most can be planted either by players or villagers although some special flowers only occur when specific criteria are satisfied. They can also be placed in a house as furniture.

Flowers will grow throughout the year: players can develop new colors (known as "hybrids") through selective planting.

Overview
Flower seeds can be purchased (Gardening Store or Tom Nook's Store); flowers, once grown, can be transplanted, and from flowers can be worn as accessories, used in home decor, or given as gifts.

The Tulip, Pansy and Cosmos occur across all Animal Crossing platforms. Other flowers, and their platforms, are:
 * Lily, Violet (in )
 * Rose (in, , )
 * Dandelion (flower and puff) (in, , )
 * Carnation (in, )
 * Jacob's Ladder (in , Animal Crossing: City Folk, and Animal Crossing:Wild World)
 * Rafflesia (in, , )
 * Four Leaf Clover (in, , ): it does not appear as a flower on the ground, but can be found when picking clover.

In this Wikia, colors are referred to as "Base" (standard color from purchase/ gift) and "Hybrid" (developed through cross-pollination/ hybridization).

Survival
All flowers (except golden roses) can wilt ( onwards): wilted flowers become dull brown, and are destroyed if picked but can be restored (on the following day) if watered with a watering can on the same day as they wilt.

Running across flowers gives a 10% (12.5% in ) chance of destruction. Digging up flowers with a shovel will destroy them.

Flowers will slightly brighten up upon watering; precipitation will also revive flowers.

Villagers can destroy flowers by running over them several times.

Insects on Flowers
Many insect species are attracted to flowers such as Ladybugs, Butterflies, Mantises, and Snails: some will only appear on flowers, such as snails (Including Jacob's Ladders). Until, Tulips did not attract insects.

See Flower Insects for a complete list of the insects you'll find on flowers.

Cosmos
Cosmos are multi-petaled and thin-leaved flowers that take on the appearance of daisies in real life. The base colors are yellow, pink, and blue in GCN games, and red, white, and yellow in other games. Hybrid colors include orange, pink, and black. Unlike roses, if the player were to water the black cosmos with a Golden Watering Can, the cosmos will not turn gold.

Rose
Roses are common in all the games from onward. The base colors are red, white, and yellow. Hybrid colors are pink, orange, black, purple, and blue. Gold roses also exist, selling for 3,000 bells and are obtained by watering a wilted black rose with a golden watering can.

Blue roses are unique. Creating them requires two "hybrid red" roses. Hybrid red roses are created by breeding orange x white, purple x red or orange x purple. Hybrid red roses cannot be distinguished from regular roses in any fashion, so care must be taken. Breeding two hybrid red roses gives a chance of blue roses.

Tulip
Tulips are common in all the games. The base colors are red, white, and yellow. Hybrid colors are pink, purple, orange, and black.

Pansy
Pansies are common in all the games. The base colors are red, white, and yellow. Hybrid colors that can be found are orange, blue, and purple.

Violet
Violets are a new flower in. The basic colors are white, purple, and yellow. The only hybrid is blue, created from white and purple parents.

Lily
Lilies are a new flower in. The basic colors are red, white, and yellow. Hybrid colors are pink, orange, blue and black.

Hybrids of lilies are as follows:

Red + Red ~ Black

Red + White ~ Pink

Red + Yellow ~ Orange

White + Purple ~ Blue

Carnations
Carnations can only be obtained in City Folk and New Leaf. There are three colors - pink is obtained from the player's mother on Mother's Day (The second Sunday of May), the red is obtained from the player's father/mother on Father's Day (The third Sunday of June), and whites are created as hybrids of the two.

Clover


Clover grows frequently as weeds, disappearing after being pulled. Infrequently, when clover is picked the player exclaims that they've found a four-leaf clover, which is then found in the player's inventory. The four leafed-clover has been known to improve luck and can be used as a hair accessory or home decoration.

Dandelion


A Dandelion appears randomly, and although essentially a weed (which disappears when picked) it does not affect town status. It is brighter and fuller in appearance than  yellow cosmos.

After a few days Dandelion flowers turn white and become "puffs" which can be "blown away" by the player resulting in the seeds floating away and disappearing (e.g., equipped as a tool, action by pressing A). Puffs do not re-seed.

Jacob's Ladders
When the environment of a town reaches perfect level, the Jacob's Ladder flower grows on the edge of a cliff. It is a rare and desirable flower. It is the complete opposite to rafflesia, which appears when your town is terrible. Color/Appearance
 * Base: white (bells handing from a curved stem (similar to real-world "Lily of the Valley") with a large green leaf behind.)
 * Hybrid: none, not possible.

Note: In growing hybrids, placing Jacob's Ladder next to parent flowers increases the chances of germinating a hybrid.

Rafflesia
A large red plant growing in the player's town when a large number of weeds accumulate: its appearance means the town is at the lowest rank (e.g. far from perfect) and can be considered the polar opposite of the Jacob's Ladder.

Real-world Rafflesia is notorious for its smell: in Animal Crossing, this is represented by the presence of flies attracted by the rotting odor.

Rafflesia removal
After weeds are removed, Rafflesias will wilt, then disappear.

To rid your town of weeds, either pull them up or talk to Wisp, the ghost who will grant a wish to remove all weeds if you complete a task (to restore all five spirits). Only in Animal Crossing: City Folk and in Animal Crossing  can Wisp remove the weeds without you pulling them up.

Golden roses
Golden roses are a rare flowers, which is identical to normal roses except from the whole flower is gold.

How do you create them?
To create golden roses you need to have a golden watering can and a wilting black rose. Simply water the wilting black rose and the next day a gold rose will be exactly where the black rose used to be. Gold roses never wilt and if ran over too many times it will die, it can also be dug up with a shovel and destroyed.

Hybrids: Overview
Hybrids first appeared in, though some hybrid colorations (especially cosmos) were available as basic colors in GCN games. Hybrids and the process of growing them in the game reflects real-world cross-pollination and selective planting, when pollen from two plants (of the same type but with different characteristics) combines resulting in a new plant with a unique feature.

One special "hybrid", the golden rose, is created not by selective planting but by using a golden watering can to water a wilted black rose.

Hybrids
Although special hybrid colors are often the desirable results of selective planting, base colors can also result: e.g., two red cosmos can spawn either a black or a red cosmos.

Hybrids cannot exist between different types of flowers (e.g., lilies and roses) and the Jacob's Ladder will not parent additional flowers of its type.

Neither germination nor the occurrence of a special color are guaranteed, but some factors improve likelihood (see next section).





Growing Hybrid Flowers
Plant flowers of the same type ("Parents") adjacent either side-to-side or diagonally: the next morning a new flower may occur adjacent to one of the parents. Neither germination nor the occurrence of a hybrid color are guaranteed, as only 3-5 new flowers appear each day and hybrid colors occur less frequently than standard colors.

Some factors may increase the likelihood of hybrid germination: certain factors are required whilst others are anecdotally considered beneficial.

Required factors:
 * The parents must be adjacent (next to each other side-to-side or diagonally)
 * At least one open empty space must be available next to each parent flower
 * Same type of flower

Beneficial factors:
 * Perfect town status
 * Good Luck Feng Shui
 * Presence of Jacob's ladders next to either parent
 * Watering dried out flowers that meet hybridization conditions
 * Water the flowers after planting (using a silver watering can is best)
 * Fertilizer (only in Animal Crossing: New Leaf)

Getting blue hybrid roses
Breeding two red hybrid roses can result in a blue rose, but red hybrid roses are indistinguishable from basic red roses, so care must be taken to differentiate between them if a blue rose is desired.

Trivia

 * When flowers are watered, the flag that states that they have been watered is stored in the square the flower is on, not the flower. This means that if a watered flower is picked up and moved elsewhere, it will not retain its watered state. Likewise, if an unwatered flower is moved onto a "watered" square, it will count as watered.