13 Rare Items in Grow A Garden and How to Find Them

If you’re deep into Grow A Garden, you know how addicting it can be to collect items, unlock new zones, and evolve your garden. But as you progress, some rare items can make or break your strategy—either by boosting your garden’s productivity or unlocking hidden mechanics. In this guide, I’ll walk you through 13 rare items in Grow A Garden, explain what they do, and most importantly, how you can find them.

1. Golden Shovel

Use: The Golden Shovel isn’t just a fancy tool—it increases your dig speed by 50% and gives a 10% higher chance to unearth rare soil types like Enchanted Loam and Sparkroot Soil. These rare soils are essential for growing high-tier plants and unlocking hidden flower evolutions.

Where to Find: It’s a rare drop from Level 10+ Digging Quests located in the Gravelroot Zone. However, the most reliable way I’ve found is through the Weekly Soil Challenge. If you reach Platinum Tier (which requires over 15,000 dig points), there’s a 5–8% chance of receiving the Golden Shovel in your end-of-week reward box. Also worth noting: equipping a pet with the “Treasure Nose” passive increases the drop rate slightly.

Extra Tip: You can only hold one Golden Shovel at a time, so don’t waste rewards—check your inventory before grinding the challenge.

2. Suncrystal Seed

Use: When planted, the Suncrystal Seed grows into a luminous flower that gives a +20% growth boost to nearby plants during daylight. It also expands the “sunlight radius,” which helps unlock certain sunlight-dependent plant evolutions and pet behaviors.

Where to Find: This seed isn’t found in the wild—you have to breed it. Cross a Solar Petal (found in Sunspire Fields) with a Crystal Bud (harvested from caves in Gleamgrove Hollow). Breeding must be done in the Greenhouse Breeder, and the success rate starts low (around 15%). You can increase your odds by using a pet with the “Botanical Instinct” trait or applying Breeder’s Tea beforehand.

Extra Tip: The Suncrystal Flower takes 6 in-game days to mature fully. If you water it with Spiritwater during growth, it evolves into a Radiant Suncrystal, which has a wider aura.

3. Phantom Root

Use: The Phantom Root is a mysterious ingredient used to craft Spectral Fertilizer, which works only at night. This fertilizer gives a powerful +40% growth speed bonus to nocturnal or ghost-type plants and is essential for completing certain nighttime Bloom Trials.

Where to Find: Only spawns in the Moonlit Marsh zone during nighttime hours (8:00 PM to 6:00 AM game time). Look for glowing soil mounds near spirit trees—they shimmer faintly. You’ll need to dig with a Silver or Golden Shovel to extract the root. The spawn rate is extremely low (around 2–3 per night), and competition can be high if you’re on a public server.

Extra Tip: Equipping the Glowbug Lantern and using a “Stealth” pet reduces enemy spawn rates in the marsh, giving you a better shot at uninterrupted gathering.

4. Spiritwater Bottle

Use: This rare liquid is used to awaken dormant magical pets or trigger super-bursts of growth in mystical plants. It’s also a requirement for activating some of the floating runestones in the Spiritwild biome. Only one use per bottle, so plan wisely.

Where to Find: There are two main methods:

Completing Spirit Quests, which are side missions given by ghostly NPCs around the Whispering Garden. These often involve helping lost pets, restoring old altars, or solving memory puzzles.

Helping Wandering Garden Spirits, which appear randomly around the map (especially near relic structures). If you interact with them and offer items like Ethereal Leaves or Bloomdust, they may reward you with Spiritwater.

Extra Tip: If you gather three bottles and combine them at the Spirit Basin (unlocked after completing the “Whispers in the Wind” questline), you can create Blessed Spiritwater, which is powerful enough to instantly awaken Legendary pets.

The Spiritwater Bottle is one of those items that feels truly magical in Grow A Garden. It not only brings dormant pets to life but also ties directly into the deeper lore of the Spiritwild biome. Its rarity and function are part of what makes it so rewarding to find. However, because items like Spiritwater and awakened pets have such a major impact on progression and balance, the developers have taken precautions to protect the in-game ecosystem. That’s one of the key reasons behind the question many players ask—Why is Pet Trading Disabled in Grow a Garden? By preventing pet trading, the game ensures that powerful, quest-based pets and rare evolutions like those awakened with Spiritwater retain their value and meaning for each player’s journey.

5. Rainbow Pebble

Use: At first glance, this item seems purely cosmetic—it sparkles when placed—but it actually boosts the morale of nearby pets and slightly increases their breeding success rate (approx. +5%). If placed near pet habitats, it also improves happiness regeneration over time.

Where to Find: The Rainbow Pebble is locked behind a puzzle sequence in the Puzzle Garden, located past the Color Lock Gate. To reach it:

• Complete the three “Color Pattern” challenges across Bloomshade Valley.
• Collect the Color Keys (Red, Blue, and Yellow).
• Unlock the gate and solve the tile-light puzzle inside (hint: look for the flower patterns in the surrounding wall murals).
• Once solved, a Rainbow Chest appears, and you have a guaranteed chance to receive 1–2 Rainbow Pebbles.

Extra Tip: You can only place three Rainbow Pebbles per zone. Try clustering them near breeding habitats or high-tier pets like hybrids to maximize their passive benefit.

6. Bug Net Pro

Use: This upgraded net allows you to catch ultra-rare bugs like the Glasswing Moth, Crimson Beetle, and Glowfly Queen. It also increases your catch radius by 25% and lowers escape chance, which is crucial during time-limited bug events.

Where to Find: The Bug Net Pro is not directly purchasable at the start. To unlock it, you must:

• Catch 100 unique bug species.
• Fill at least two bug index pages in the Insect Encyclopedia.
• Visit the Entomologist NPC (located in the Bugwood Canopy), who will then offer to trade your Standard Net + 10 Bug Tokens for the Bug Net Pro.
• You’ll also need to complete the “Catch Me If You Can” questline beforehand.

Extra Tip: Bugs caught with this net are more likely to drop bonus materials like Bug Silk or Wing Dust, which are used in crafting pet accessories.

7. Mythic Fertilizer

Use: A powerful consumable, this fertilizer doubles crop yield and effect for a single growth cycle. It’s especially useful when planting rare seeds like Glowspice Pods or Moonvine Shoots, where one harvest can yield high-level crafting resources or unlocks.

Where to Find:

• Random drop from Gold-tier Daily Tasks, particularly ones involving planting, composting, or harvesting.
• Alternatively, if you donate 5 unique compostables (like Banana Peels, Stardust Mold, Glimmering Husk, etc.) to the Fertilizer Gnome in Compost Corner, he may reward you with a Mythic Fertilizer.
• There’s a cooldown—you can only receive one Mythic Fertilizer from the Gnome every 5 in-game days.

Extra Tip: Fertilizers can stack with pet passive boosts, so plan to use them when you have nearby pets with “Growth Aura” or “Efficient Gardener” traits active.

8. Echo Pod

Use: This curious device records the last environmental sound it hears—be it wind chimes, bird calls, or garden whispers—and can later be played to attract specific pets or trigger hidden pet paths. It’s vital for luring in sound-sensitive creatures like the Chirploom or Whisprabbit.

Where to Find: The Echo Pod is a reward from the Echo Ridge Questline, which starts in the Windpetal Plateau after reaching Garden Rank 12. The final quest requires:

• Solving the Wind Echo Puzzle.
• Locating three lost soundstones.
• Activating the Harmonic Shrine using a timed sound pattern.
• Completing these steps rewards you with an Echo Pod and an Echo Mapping Chart that shows where to use it.

Extra Tip: Some rare pets only respond to specific recorded sounds (e.g., a lullaby or owl hoot). You’ll need to experiment—record sounds at different times of day and play them back near suspicious-looking bushes or flower clusters.

9. Cracked Eggstone

Use: This ancient relic is a key item used to unlock the Ancient Pet Hatchery, a hidden facility that allows you to breed hybrid, mutant, and even ancestral pets—some of the most powerful and visually unique companions in Grow A Garden.

Where to Find: The Eggstone is split into three fragments, and you must locate all of them to reassemble the item:

• Fragment 1: Hidden in the northern cliffs of Forgotten Vale, behind a waterfall cave only accessible during rain.
• Fragment 2: Buried under the oldest tree in Wiltroot Hollow; use a Golden Shovel and a “Keen Nose” pet to reveal the dig spot.
• Fragment 3: Reward from the “Pet Bloodline” quest, available after reaching Pet Breeder Rank 10.

Once you have all three, bring them to the Eggstone Altar (located near the Hatchery Ruins) to restore the item and unlock the facility.

Extra Tip: Using the Ancient Pet Hatchery also consumes Glow Nectar and Hybrid Pet Tags, so make sure to stock up before you dive into advanced breeding.

10. Glowbug Lantern

Use: A portable light source that does more than illuminate—when equipped, it attracts rare nocturnal bugs, boosts night vision range by +50%, and reveals hidden paths or interactions in nighttime garden zones.

Where to Find:

• Trade 30 Glowbug Wings at the Night Market, which only opens on weekends (game time).
• Alternatively, you can receive it as a rare reward from Mystery Bug Boxes, which are granted after finishing high-difficulty Bug Hunt Events.

Once obtained, it goes into your equipment slot and stays permanently (though upgrades are possible later).

Extra Tip: Some bugs, like the Twilight Crawler and Mirror Mantis, will only spawn if you have the Glowbug Lantern active during specific lunar phases—so keep an eye on the in-game moon cycle.

11. Pet Whistle (Silver)

Use: This single-use item allows you to summon any pet from your storage to assist in your garden temporarily, even if its habitat is full. Summoned pets can:

• Use one of their passive abilities.
• Help you complete certain time-sensitive tasks.
• Join you during Garden Expeditions.

Where to Find: Unlocked as a reward when you reach Pet Collection Level 15. You’ll receive one Silver Whistle as a milestone gift and can craft more using:

• 2x Whisper Bark
• 1x Glow String
• 5x Pet Essence (obtained from releasing common pets)
• Crafting is done at the Pet Workbench, unlocked in the Breezelight Clearing.

Extra Tip: Some rare event pets (e.g., Flameling or Snowpuff) can only be summoned using a Silver or Gold Whistle—regular means won’t activate them due to their limited bonding time.

12. Ancient Compost Core

Use: This item upgrades any compost bin into an Auto-Composter, which works twice as fast and produces enhanced compost materials like Enriched Humus and Myco-Mix—essential for high-tier crop growth.

Where to Find: You’ll have to defeat the Compost King, a rare mini-boss found in the Sludge Grotto zone. This mini-boss:

• Spawns only during rainy days (in-game weather).
• Must be summoned using a Rotten Apple Totem, crafted via Compost Lab Level 3.
• Uses toxic AoE attacks—bring pets with resistance buffs or healing auras.
• After defeating him, there’s about a 25% chance he’ll drop the Ancient Compost Core.

Extra Tip: Once you have the core, interact with any compost bin and select “Infuse Core” to upgrade it. You can move the core later, but only once every 3 days.

13. Moonlight Dewdrop

Use: This shimmering liquid is one of the rarest crafting materials in the game. It is required to:

• Grow Moon Bloom Flowers, which are used to open the Dream Garden.
• Craft high-level elixirs that boost pet evolution rates.
• Activate certain Moon Totems tied to dream-related quests.

Where to Find: You’ll need to craft a Dewcatcher using:

• 1x Moon Bark
• 2x Glimmer Vine
• 10x Cloud Silk

Then place it in the Celestial Garden, a zone that only becomes available after completing the “Stargazer’s Path” storyline. Let the Dewcatcher run overnight—only during full moon phases—and in the morning, you’ll get 1–2 Moonlight Dewdrops.

Extra Tip: Placing a Glowpet nearby increases the chance of collecting double the dew. Also, using a Spiritwater Bottle on the Dewcatcher can purify the drops into Blessed Moonlight Dew, used in dream-based evolution paths.