The Sims 4: Quick Gardening

Graft and Take Cutting to Get Rare Plants

The Sims 4 Take Cutting and Graft are useful abilities for completing a garden collection
Taking Cuttings, then Grafting them to existing plants will produce new types of plants, but only in the right combination!

Once you've leveled Gardening to 5, you can begin taking cuttings from plants in your garden and in the wild. These can then be grafted onto other plants. The base plant type determines the type of cutting you get as well as the graft result (so first listed in a plant that has multiple types growing). Having other harvestables growing from a plant doesn't matter, so long as the first one listed is the right type. So a tulip base cutting grafted onto a chrysanthemum base plant will produce bird of paradise.

A grafted plant is produced after taking cuttings
The base type is what matters, not what else is on the plant. This applies to both grafting and take cutting. The base here is Orchid.

You can take cutting from either type of plant in this list and graft it onto the other. It works in both directions. Some plants grow faster than others, however, so I've listed them in such a way that the one you'll graft it onto is the faster-growing type of plant.

Common Plant Grafting

Why mess with those from seed packets? Well, the new fruit will be of the same quality as the base plant. So you can skip several evolution levels by getting it from grafting, while getting Gardening Skill XP in the process.

  • Grape (Common) - Graft Bluebell onto Strawberry
  • Parsley (Common) - Graft Sage onto Basil
  • Plantain (Common) - Graft Pear onto Lemon

Rare Plant Grafting

  • Bird of Paradise (Rare) - Graft Tulip onto Chrysanthemum.
  • Bonsai Buds (Rare) - Graft Daisy onto Strawberry.
  • Bonsai Buds (Rare) - Graft Roses onto Grape.
  • Pomegranate (Rare) - Graft Cherry onto Apple.
  • Dragonfruit (Rare) - Graft Snapdragon onto Strawberry.
  • Cow Berry (Rare) - Graft Dragonfruit onto Snapdragon.
  • Orchid (Rare) - Graft Lily onto Snapdragon.
  • Death Flower (Rare) - Graft Pomegranate onto Orchid.

Death Flower

Getting a death flower can be extrapolated by using the above info, but I'll simplify it for you here:

  • Graft Cherry to Apple to make Pomegranate
  • Graft Lily to Snapdragon to make Orchid
  • Graft Pomegranate to Orchid to make Death Flowers
  • Harvest the Death Flowers, Plant one, and enjoy unlimited Death Flowers, which can be given to the Reaper by another Sim to save his target from death!

Learn the locations of all plants with our Gardening Plant List here.

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Comments (32)

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New
Edwina Gilbertsays...
I needed the tip for grafting thanks
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New
Mattysays...
Once you've done the grafting where does it go?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
It goes straight into the sims personal inventory. Smile
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New
Patriciasays...
Where is the cherry?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
There are cherry trees in Oasis Springs near the Landgraab lot, In the neighborhood in Oasis Springs where the Caliente lot is, in Sylvan Glade, and the neighborhood of Windenburg where the pond is. You could find it tricky to find them with the grow fruit challenge currently on in-game as many players are reporting that wild trees are all becoming grow fruit.
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New
Pichusays...
I can't find the cherries, at all, I need an image (or more) to help.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Because of the Spring Challenge most of the wild cherry trees are grow Fruit at the moment. if you have Get Together there are cherry trees in the garden of the Von Haunt Estate where the huge maze is. After the challenge is over (April21st) the wild trees should revert back to their 'original' fruit and should be easier to find.
Links to in-game screen shots of cherry tree locations
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New
RastaPastasays...
I found a Wild Cherry Tree in Sylvan Glade today (Saturday 4/15/2016) but there was only one there... and it died as soon as I harvested it's fruit. It gave me two cherries though, and now I have a couple of Cherry Trees growing on my lot.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Neat! You can also remove wild plants so that they spawn back. And taking 2 cuttings from one plant will always kill it. Weird that it died after you harvested it but wild fruit trees have been a little strange with the Spring Challenge.
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New
Jamiesays...
Do you know what you can do with growfruit? like what it can turn into if you graft it with other things.
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Admin
Playalotsays...
The grow fruit doesn't seem to unlock any new plants once grafted so I guess you could let your sim eat them or sell them.
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New
Skye Herkinssays...
Where do you find Lily's?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
You can find the lilies near the Oakenstead Lot in Willow Creek. (To the left under the 'cliffs' as you look at the front of the lot.) You'll have to have your sim there for a while for the plants to spawn and then for a bit longer before they will be grown enough to take a cutting.
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Brittneysays...
I found a Lily plant in the park in Willow Creek, down on the far bottom right.
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Regular
Amandasays...
Whenever I go to get cuttings for tomatos, lemons, etc. the cuttings just say "garden cutting" and when I try to graft, they won't work. How do I fix this?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
This is a current bug. It has been fixed previously but seems to be back in some games. Have you tried cutting/grafting on your home lot as some people have reported not being able to cut/graft wild plants but can at home.
Here is the open bug report read through to the most recent posts and you'll see that grafting works mostly on home lots so the work around is to harvest wild plants, grow them on your home lot where you can then graft to complete the plant collection etc.
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New
Siobhansays...
this hasn't worked for me what should I do? CryingMadTongue
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Senior
Playalotsays...
Update your game as grafting/cuttings have been fixed and are all working as expected in my game now. Not quite sure which bit you are having problems with as you didn't tell me.
If you're still having problems after updating your game, removing all/any mods and cc and testing in-game and trying a Repair Game option through the Origin Client, follow the link I provided in the above comment to the Bug Report and report it.
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New
soniasays...
Cherry can also be found in the secret glade in willow creek :)
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Yes, we have that information here. Smile
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New
Mackenziesays...
So, I'm having a bit of trouble, not sure if it is a big or I'm just not figuring something right. I'm trying to get a cow berry so I grafted a snap dragon onto a strawberry to get a dragon fruit, and it says the recipe is in my my notebook and it is, however I have all the "ingredients" but I'm not sure how to actually GET the dragon fruit? Help?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Eventually the grafted plant will be ready for harvest at which point there will be snapdragon flowers, strawberries and dragon fruit all growing on that one plant.
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New
Niamhsays...
Can you graft a plasma cutting with a wolf's bane plant or the other way around?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Yep you can graft either of these plants onto any other plant. I think I have my plasma fruit grafted onto some potato plants at the moment as they were the only ones at perfect at the time.
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New
Carisays...
Is the growfruit still spawning in the park? I've played 2 different games & neither one had a growfruit in the park Sad
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Admin
Playalotsays...
No, growfruit do not spawn in games now that the challenge is completely over. If you own Outdoor Retreat they can be bought from the Ranger Kiosk in the Campground area. Or you could download a room from the Gallery that has a growfruit tree in it.
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Carisays...
Thanks
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Admin
Playlotsays...
NOTE: grow fruit can now be found in seed packets. This changed with a patch.
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New
FieryPhoenixsays...
They aren't anymore, but if you use cheats you can get one.
Press ctrl+shift+c (for Mac only(i don't know the one for pc sorry)) then type in testing_cheats true, then after that do bb.showhidden items
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New
mickeysays...
there is a mod that unlocks the growfruit as well as some of the rare ones including alien plants but some things u still have to work for like the death flower. Grin
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New
SunsetKittensays...
I found Snapdragon in Magnolia Blossom park. It's to the north of Brook Bungalow, in the Willow Creek area. Is that rare to be found there?
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mayasays...
No. Snapdragon are actually quite common in willow creek, half my garden is full of them.
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New
ZZsays...
I grafted the cherry onto the apple tree and all it says is apple, cherry and pomegranate tree. I have the recipe in my notebook but when I harvest that tree all I get is apples what do I do
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Admin
Playalotsays...
Just wait a while. A grafted plant will eventually grow all the types but at a shared rate. A plant can only grow 10 fruit max for any one harvest so if the plant is 'shared' between a few fruit types then it is random as to which type will show for each harvest. Usually you will get at least one of each type but only if you are harvesting the max (10) each time.
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New
Nykrotiksays...
Growfruit are an excellent fertilizer.
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New
Vielsays...
If you have the City Living, you can go to the Arts Quarter in San Myshubo and buy fresh produce from a stall there. It sells a lot of plants, even the rare ones like dragonfruit.
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Senior
Playalotsays...
I've never once seen dragonfruit in any of the City Living pop-up stalls! Are you sure your sim bought a dragonfruit from a stall? Dragonfruit sometimes spawn in as the 'special' plant in the planter-boxes at the festivals, often in the Romance Festival and sometimes in the Spice.
We do have this guide here there if you are looking for more precise info.
Plant Location Guide
We also have a list on the forum that has all the pop-up stalls info: (Click)

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New
Savannahsays...
I grafted a lily and a snapdragon. Tried to produce an orchid... didnt work. it just produced another lily.
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Admin
Playlotsays...
The grafted plant will grow the original flower plus the grafted one plus whatever hybrid it makes (if it makes one). You will need to wait for a full harvest (10 flowers) before maybe seeing the correct result. If you harvest too soon all you will see is whichever flower happened to grow first.
I actually happened to graft this combo last night in my own game and it worked fine so I suggest hovering your mouse over the grafted plant as this will tell you exactly what kind of plant it is.
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New
Carolsays...
Is there anything that can be paired with a plasma tree graft?
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Admin
Playlotsays...
Nothing that makes a new plant/harvestable but you can graft anything onto anything else so just graft it where it makes it easy for the size of your sims garden. I like to graft all the plants that do not make new harvestables on to potatoes as they grow fairly quickly so slower growing plants will also grow as fast once grafted on. Faster growth= more harvests over a sims life = more money!
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New
Leanne maysays...
Can anyone help me?
I’m new to grafting plants etc!
Can someone give me step by step instructions on how to combined the Apple and cherry together and the lily and snapdragon.
So far I planted a lily and fertilised with snapdragon is that right?

I need help!
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Senior
Playlotsays...
No, that is not right. Fertilizing has nothing to do with the grafting mechanics.
Grow all plants until they are mature and also have your sim get to Level 5 of the gardening skill. At that point your sim will have an option to 'Take a Cutting' when clicking on a plant. So take a cutting from one plant then go to the other plant and the option 'Graft" will appear. When you have multiple cuttings in a sims inventory you can click to expand the stack and hovering over each will give you it's name so you know what cutting came from what plant. Then just follow the grafting guide to figure out what pairings make new plants.
You can graft all plants onto each other to make less overall plants in a sims garden to reduce the work needed but only some graft together to make brand new plants.
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New
Leanne maysays...
Thank you so much! WIll try this when I go home! :)

What do I do with shoots? Basically I went to the Landgrabb lot and took 2 cuttings off a cherry tree. The tree then died lol.
So I had only shoots of cherry. It won’t let me plant the shoots? What do I do. I’m trying to make ambrosia you see :)
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Senior
Playlotsays...
Wild trees that die can be removed when your sims clicks on them. This allows new ones to grow back when the lot is actively loaded.
You can't plants the cuttings, only graft them. Like the Guide above says Cherry>Apple = pomegranate. Then wait till your sims can harvest a pomegranate fruit and plant this; wait until it grows; then graft orchid>pomegranate=death flower.
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New
Keisssays...
After the seasons patch, I grafted a snapdragon onto a strawberry bush and only returned with a spliced plant that produces strawberries and snapdragons, but not dragonfruit. What did I do wrong?
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Admin
Playlotsays...
Nothing, my game is bugged the same way. No grafted plants in my game produces the grafting result, I only get the two initial plants. Carl's game didn't have this bug..so it seems a little random. I ended up having to use the' bb.showhiddenobjects' cheat to get the grafted plants from build/buy mode as there was simply no other way for me. EA Bug Report (click)
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Senior
Playlotsays...
Discovered that this in fact, is not a bug but part of the gardening overhaul. There is now a chance element as to whether a spliced plant will produce the combo harvestable. So you can either try again and splice a few more plants together or spam the seed packets.
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New
Oliversays...
If it says spliced plans does that mean is just didn’t work?
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Admin
Playlotsays...
There is a chance every harvest on each spliced plant that the expected harvestables will grow. If you are waiting for a rare harvestable to grow on a spliced plant then it is a very low chance, around 1%. You can either plant and graft more of the same sort so that you have more grafted plants in total to try to get the rare harvestable or just keep harvesting every day and wait.
The plant should say 'spliced plant' when you hover over it also it should say what type of plants are spliced together. If it doesn't display that try saving and restarting your game.
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New
RoxyPandorasays...
Are the shoots transferable? I had a Sim who was level 10 in gardening and I was trying to get the shoots from Oasis before she died and she died right after I got the last one so I couldnt finish the garden. Her daughter is now level 5 in gardening and I still can't pick up the shoots with her.
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Admin
Playlotsays...
Any time a sim dies you can transfer most items in their personal inventories to another sim in the same household, just pause your game before the sim is actually collected by Grim. Sadly cuttings are not transferable.
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New
RoxyPandorasays...
Thanks! I tried to transfer when she was dying too and it didn't work. Oh well, guess I gotta go back to Oasis.
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New
Islasays...
I grafted snapdragon and Lily and it's been about 2 weeks and I still don't have an orchid. Same with my Apple and cherry. I still haven't harvested a pomegranate. Does anyone know why? - Oh and I don't have any CC.
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Admin
Playlotsays...
Yes, with the 'newish' update to gardening the rarer the plant the less chance of it spawning in on a grafted plant. So because orchid and pomegranate are both classified as Rare, the chance or odds of them spawning in any morning (as long as the plant was harvested the day before) is very low. So you can either keep harvesting your plants every day (so you can get a new harvestable lot in each morning) or try your luck with the seed packets. You can buy the Rare Seed packets on the PC as long as your sim has a high gardening skill level.
Pomegranates can also be bought from the city fruit vendors if you have City Living.
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New
mayasays...
Hi, where can I find a cherry? Or lemon?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
The plant list on the main Gardening Guide has basic instructions on where to find the plants. Also this Guide to Cherry Trees I threw together years ago on the forum has screen shots taken from in-game to help. In some of those locations in Oasis Springs you'll also find lemon trees.
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New
Lorrainesays...
Are there any new grafting options with expansion pack plants?
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Admin
Playalotsays...
No, the new plants can be grafted onto any other plant as normal but no new plants from such graftings in Island Living.
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New
Kelseysays...
Tongue I Love The Sims 4!


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