Gem

For the version in Plants vs. Zombies Adventures, see gems.''
 * ''Not to be confused with diamond from Plants vs. Zombies.

Gems are items in Plants vs. Zombies 2: It's About Time used for boosting plants in the Zen Garden and for purchasing gem premium plants, such as Ghost Pepper, Homing Thistle, Sweet Potato, and Hurrikale. They can also be used in the seed selection screen as an alternative way to boost plants.

How to obtain

 * Purchasing them with real-world money.
 * Randomly dropped by zombies.
 * Mystery Gift Boxes
 * Found in piñatas.

Purchasable plants

 * Ghost Pepper (no longer available)
 * Homing Thistle
 * Sweet Potato (no longer available)
 * Hurrikale

Strategies
It is highly advised to use gems to buy premium plants, as some of them are limited and you will not be able to buy them after deadline. Ghost Pepper and Sweet Potato are currently no longer available, so you can only buy Homing Thistle and Hurrikale as they are not limited time. When you have brought all current gem premium plants, you can try to get more to have value for unlocking new pots in Zen Garden or for future gem premiums.

Gems' appearance depends on luck. However, gems usually appear in Endless Zones, so you can play them to get more gems. If you don't like playing Endless Zones, you can replay some levels of worlds that have great cloud density of zombies. Best choices for this are the levels from Big Wave Beach and Frostbite Caves, since they usually have 4 flags and lots of zombies.

Trivia

 * Before the 1.7 update, gems were equivalent cost of 1000 coins. In the 2.1 update, gems returned but now as a separate currency.
 * This currency was introduced with the Far Future update.
 * Sometimes there will be a glitch that almost every zombie in a level will drop a gem when killed, instead of only a few zombies.
 * In Summer Bundle, there is a glitch that the gem will be replaced by "X" if the player does not get any sprouts yet.
 * Starting from the 2.9.1 update onwards, gems can be used to buy sprouts.
 * In the 3.2.1 update, the rate of gem drops had been increased, in order to help the player acquire the gem premium plants more easily, since they are specifically designed to help the player beat the worlds they are released with.