Dear fellow FL Players,
I'm sorry, but I just don't understand how it works with the Candy Flowers and how to find the right combination in my garden. If you have any tips & tricks; please help me out?
Thanks a lot in advance!
Stay safe and healthy,
Ineke

These are a few posts I wrote a while back to help people, maybe they'll be useful here?

1. To get started I'd plant three Chocolate Candyflower seeds in hand painted pots, and either dust them up or leave them to grow. Once they are all RFH, you can begin trying to attract candy critters. Put out some food and see which critters - if any - show up. Give it a good chance, it can take a few feeds sometimes (I'd give it 10-15 feeds on a food type before changing anything).

Keep a note of the order of your three plants (shape and colour) and which critters were attracted. Check the wildlife guide entries for those critters and it'll tell you which position the plant that attracted each is in, and whether it's the right shape only, or the right shape abd the right colour, to attract the violet of that critter. Keep a note of all this info.

Keep testing all the different food types with that setup. Once you've tried all four, switch the positions of the plants so each is in a different position (left, middle, right) of the three. Repeat the testing of food types and record the results.

2. Your target is to aim for the violet critter of each type.  That's the 3 plant combination you are trying to figure out.  So, if you are getting orange, green, or indigo critters of a particular type, then you have a completely correct plant to attract the violet of that type.  (The color you get denotes which plant placement is correct.)  If you are attracting red, yellow, or blue of a type, it means that you have the shape(s) right but not the color(s).  (Again, the color you get denotes which shape is correct.)  So, pay attention to what colors you are getting and what those colors mean for your 3 plant combination and keep notes.  You may find that the plant which is totally correct for one critter is also partially correct for another.  You just want to make sure you are aware of everything you are attracting and each critter's implication before you change your garden.

3. Think of each kind of candy critter as a separate challenge within the whole.

If you are attracting red, yellow or blue of one type, you can use the info in the Wildlife Guide to find out which position the plant attracting it is in, and then you know that that plant is the right shape/wrong colour for the violet of that type. 

If you are attracting orange, green or indigo of one type, you can use the info in the Wildlife Guide to find out which position the plant attracting it is in, and then you know that that plant is the right shape/right colour for the violet of that type.

You can use that all info to help you gradually narrow down which shape/colour you need until you know all three. Then you can set up for the violet critter of that kind.

Claire so I have seen many gardens with more than 3 plants in. Presuming that only the 3 on the left actually attract I have since then tried growing another plant (4th) to begin rotating my plants and now even the plants that were attracting don't work. Now Im just getting mice and mallards etc.
Why can some gardens have more than 3 candy plants ?

They can't. They can have others still growing but not yet fully grown. But you can only have three fully grown candy plants at once. This is made clear in the Wildlife Guide.

From the Candy Critters sidebar in the Wildlife Guide:

"You must have exactly 3 Candyflower fruits to attract Candy Critters - no more, no less"

If you see more then three plants and a recent candy critter spotting, it’s probably because some of the plants have only just become ready-for-harvest and the critter was programmed into the plate before they turned RFH. Some people plant up several seeds to see what they will get, then delete unwanted ones once they’ve appeared.

Thank you for the advise everyone. That makes sense and also helps me to not waste my gold watering plants that are set up incorrectly

First of all: thank you for the info! It's much appreciated!
But what if your Candyflowers don't attract any Candy Critters? Does that mean all three of your plants are wrong? Or could it be that it's just one that's wrong?

It's highly unlikely that none of your plants will attract nothing.  Try each colour in every position, with every type of food (other than cake), and give it plenty of time before you change things around.