Animal Crossing: How to get tulips in New Horizons

Sometimes, an Animal Crossing island is missing something. Islands can have any and everything a player can imagine. Decorations, buildings, villagers and more can all be added to the island to make it fit what the player wants. But sometimes, it's just a small addition that can make a big difference. Something like a tree or a plant. Tulips, in this case.

Tulips are some of the best flowers in the game, but they're not so easy to come by. There are a couple of ways to get them in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Getting tulips in Animal Crossing

There are two main ways of getting tulips for the island in Animal Crossing. They can be bought or they can be grown.

saw a real life photo of tulips and thought “ooh pretty animal crossing flowers” help

— R*cco’s posting their W’s (@imbabydaisy) April 10, 2020

If players want to buy tulips, they can be bought from Nook's Cranny. However, if the player's island doesn't natively grow tulips, then they won't be available. This isn't a death knell, though, because there are other ways of getting the elusive flower.

Nook's Cranny. Image via Animal Crossing Wiki

If they are native to an island and thus available for purchase in Nook's Cranny, there is a villager named Leif (fitting) who is near Resident Services that has set up a small cart selling flowers. There is a rotating stock of flowers in Leif's cart, but he will often have tulips available.

Leif and his flowers. Image via Shacknews

Leif is the only current in-game NPC that can sell flowers to players.

- Leif (Animal Crossing)- Speaking emoji: 🌼- Plant loving sloth.- He/Him!- Shippable with chemistry!- Age: 7 (In sloth years.)- SFW portrayal. [#ACRP] pic.twitter.com/rA6a5A4z11

— 🎩✨ |026| (@PSYCHEDELlCHE) May 22, 2020

The other option is to get them from friends. If a friend's island has native tulips, then their Nook's Cranny will also sell them. Players can visit the island and go to that Nook's Cranny and tulips will be available for purchase. Friends can also mail tulip seeds to players to plant on their island. They don't have to be mailed either, as they can be hand delivered by friends, but mailing them doesn't require a visit to another island.

Once acquired, they can be used to plant or be bred to grow different colors of tulips. Otherwise, they're a great addition to an island to add the finishing touches.