Flowers are useful for decoration, dyes, and breeding rabbits.
To grow flowers, you can use bone meal on a grass block. The block must either have no block above it (obstructing sun/moonlight), or be lit with a light level of at least 8. Flowers and tall grass will spread over grass blocks up to 7 blocks away in both directions (a 15×15 square). However, approximately 95% of growth occurs within a 4-block radius (a 9×9 area) around the source grass block.
The types of flowers that spawn depend on the biome. See flower biomes.
Two-high flowers cannot be grown this way at all; instead, they can be farmed by applying bone meal directly to them, which causes an item to drop.
If the planting conditions are not met, flowers will quickly pop out. This allows flowers to be used in the creation of light-sensitive mechanisms.
Poppies are also a byproduct of iron farms, as iron golems will (apart from the iron) drop 0-2 poppies on death.
Poppies spawn much less frequently than dandelions. They are the most abundant in Extreme Hills biomes, but are also somewhat common in Taiga and Tundra biomes.
Wash Away Design
In this design, a redstone clock triggers dispensers with water buckets, which destroy the flowers and wash the drops away to the center, where the player stands placing bonemeal.
Fully Automatic Wash Away
This design automates the wash away process with a bone meal dispenser and a hopper.
The Earthquake Technique
Another technique for automated farming is to shift the ground beneath the flowers with pistons.
The general idea is to have a redstone clock trigger the following three events in order:
- A dispenser dispenses bone meal into the grass from below to produce flowers.
- A set of pistons pushes the ground one block horizontally
- Another set of pistons pushes the ground back to the original position.
Size Comparison
This chart shows the area and flower yield of different sized designs, as well as the necessary number of pistons.
| Size | Area | Amount of Flowers | Pistons |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1x1 | 1 block | Very Few | 2 |
| 2x2* | 4 blocks | Few | 4 |
| 3x3 | 9 blocks | Small | 6 |
| 5x5 | 25 blocks | Medium | 10 |
| 7x7 | 49 blocks | Medium | 14 |
| 9x9 | 81 blocks | Large | 18 |
| 11x11 (Described Below) | 121 blocks | Huge | 22 |
| 15x15** | 225 blocks | Maximum | -- |
- *The 2x2 design has no center, making it harder to use/build. This applies to any even size.
- **A 15x15 area guarantees that no flower will fail to generate, but note that the earthquake collection method cannot be used (there are too many blocks for pistons to push). A somewhat complex water flow system is necessary for automatic collection.