Gold roses are a stunning addition in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, but they require a specific gardening method to grow.
Mastering hybrid flowers in Animal Crossing involves more than just planting seeds. It’s a meticulous process that combines knowledge of color theory, plant types, and genetic principles to produce unique hybrids.
Gold roses have been a staple of many towns since they first appeared in Wild World for the Nintendo DS in 2005, largely due to their rare nature and also as a ‘humblebrag’ to make your village stand out above the rest – why would you plant regular flowers when you can have gold ones?
You’ll need a golden watering can.
How to grow gold roses in New Horizons
First things first, you’ll need a golden watering can. Isabelle gives you the DIY recipe after you achieve a 5-star island rating – the guide for which can be found here.
After that, you’ll need to breed red roses together in order to spawn some black ones. It doesn’t work with any other color; you need black specifically, and they only appear by using reds.
Once you’ve got yourself some black ones, plant them in a checkerboard pattern just like you would when trying to get any other sort of hybrid. Then water them with your golden can and wait a day to see if any appear.
Black roses make gold roses, but only using a golden watering can.
Each gold rose sells for 1,000 Bells, so it’s definitely worth trying to breed them in bulk as a way to make money to pay off Tom Nook’s home loan.