Gold and blue roses in Animal Crossing.

Animal Crossing New Horizons: How to Get Gold Roses


Stephanie is a writer at VGKAMI and a long-time lover of video games—specifically JRPGs. Anything in the fantasy genre is her jam, and she vows to bring back The Legend of Dragoon one day. Stephanie has also worked as an editor at TheGamer and published features for NME.

Reviewed by:
Avatar photo
Marshall is a seasoned writer and gaming enthusiast based in Tokyo. He's a prolific wordsmith with hundreds of articles featured on top-tier sites like Business Insider, How-To Geek, PCWorld, and Zapier. His writing has reached a massive audience with over 70 million readers!

Key Takeaway

You cannot purchase Gold Roses in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. You can only get them through cross-breeding Black Roses and watering those Black Roses with a Golden Watering Can.

Gold Roses in Animal Crossing: New Horizons are aesthetically pleasing, and they sell for a fair amount of Bells. Turn your island into a golden haven by learning how to get them.

Featured image provided by Reddit user u/CuriousKeebler

Table Of Contents

    How to Get Gold Roses

    The player standing next to gold roses.

    via Reddit (u/CuriousKeebler)

    Gold Roses will take time and dedication to get. Though the process is less complicated than that of growing Blue Roses, this will still require a fair amount of planning and tedious work. However, Gold Roses are not only an attractive look for your island, but they will sell for 1,000 Bells each.

    Cross-Breed for Black Roses

    Eventually, you will need to have Black Roses in order to cross-breed for Gold Roses. Luckily, Black Roses are quite simple to get.

    Purchase Seeds from Nook’s Cranny

    You will want to start by purchasing Red Rose Seeds from Nook’s Cranny. If your island does not naturally grow Roses, Rose Seeds will not show up at the shop. In this case, travel to a friend’s island and purchase the Seeds from there.

    The more Seeds you use, the higher chance you have of getting Black Roses. Note that you will want to purchase the Seeds, not use Roses that are already on your island. These will have a different DNA sequence, and they may have been cross-bred several times already.

    Cross-Breed Your Red Roses

    Once you’ve purchased your Red Rose Seeds, you will want to plant them all in a checkered pattern, or across from each other. Make sure to water these Seeds every day.

    Wait a couple of days until your desired number of Black Roses have spawned. You’ll want to have a decent size group of them, as the more you have, the more likely Gold Roses will spawn from them later in the process.

    Get A Golden Watering Can

    A Golden Watering Can.

    via Fandom

    Your Black Roses will not spawn Gold Roses unless you’re watering them with a Golden Watering Can, so obtaining one is your next step in this process.

    How to Get the Golden Watering Can Recipe

    To get a Golden Watering Can, you’ll need to first unlock the recipe for it. Unfortunately, the Golden Watering Can is one of the more complicated Gold Tools to get. To unlock the recipe for it, you must raise your island’s rating up to five stars. To check what rating your island has at any given time, speak with Isabelle.

    Raising your island’s rating will likely be the most time-consuming part of this process. Raising your island to five stars requires a fair bit of work. You will need to place Outdoor Furniture, upgrade your facilities, plants more Flowers, plant more Trees, add more Villagers, add Bridges and Slopes, add Fencing, and pluck Weeds.

    Keep doing these tasks and checking in with Isabelle periodically, and eventually, she will tell you that your island has hit five stars. Once it does, Isabelle will automatically give you the recipe for the Golden Watering Can.

    How to Craft a Golden Watering Can

    The recipe for a Golden Watering Can is one Gold Nugget and one Watering Can. Gold Nuggets cannot be purchased, so you will need to find one by hitting rocks on your island. Every once in a great while, a Gold Nugget will drop from a Rock instead of Clay, Stone, or Iron. Note that this will likely take many tries, and you will need to have patience.

    A Watering Can must be crafted from one Iron Nugget and one Flimsy Watering Can. Once you have the Watering Can and Gold Nugget, a Golden Watering Can can be crafted at any Work Bench.

    Cross-Breed for Gold Roses

    A close up of gold roses.

    via Reddit (u/CuriousKeebler)

    Now that you have your Black Roses and your Golden Watering Can, you’re ready to make some Gold Roses. Plant your Black Roses across from each other or in a checkered pattern. The more Black Roses you plant, the higher chance you have of seeing some Gold Roses spawn.

    Water your Black Roses with your Golden Watering Can every day. Note that if you water your Black Roses with a normal Watering Can, Gold Roses will not spawn. Keep watering your Black Roses with your Golden Watering Can each day, and Gold Roses will eventually start to spawn.