The Hidden Garden: Symbol of Secrets and Revelation in Belladonna

What Is the Hidden Garden?

The hidden garden is a secluded plot in the woods behind Thorn Grove, enclosed by a weathered stone wall and locked with an iron gate. Lillian Hawthorne cultivated it as her private sanctuary, filling it with both ornamental blooms and deadly plants—belladonna, nightshade, wolfsbane, and other poisonous species. It is also where Lillian died, and her restless spirit remains bound to the place.

Signa first learns of the garden through Lillian’s ghostly message carved into the earth: "Come to my garden and save her" (Chapter 9). The "her" is Blythe, Lillian’s daughter, who is slowly being poisoned. The garden thus functions as both a literal location and a symbolic gateway to the novel’s central mystery.

Where the Garden Appears

The garden recurs at key moments:

Chapter 8: Signa sees a portrait of a woman with mismatched eyes—Lillian—outside a sealed door. Though she does not enter yet, the painting foreshadows the garden’s importance.
Chapter 9: Lillian’s spirit writes the invitation in dirt, compelling Signa to find the garden.
Chapter 10: During a piano lesson, Lillian’s spirit haunts Signa with mud and worms, a clear demand to hurry.
Chapter 12: Signa rides to the woods with Sylas. She finds the locked iron gate and uses belladonna to summon Death, gaining the power to phase through.
Chapter 14: Signa enters the garden with Death. She sees Lillian’s grave, learns the truth about the murder, and discovers the poisonous plants.
Chapter 37: Signa finds Marjorie’s journal and sees her fingers stained with belladonna, linking her to the garden’s poison.

Changing Meanings of the Garden

The garden’s symbolic weight evolves as Signa’s understanding deepens.

A Place of Mystery and Fear – Initially, the garden is a haunting presence. Lillian’s spirit terrifies Signa, manifesting with rotting flesh and a gaping mouth. The locked gate suggests forbidden knowledge.
A Source of Power and Danger – To enter, Signa must eat belladonna, which brings her close to death and allows her to borrow Death’s abilities. The garden becomes a liminal space where life and death intertwine.
A Repository of Secrets – Inside, Signa finds nightshade, belladonna, and other poisons. These plants literalize the hidden deceptions poisoning the Hawthorne family. Lillian grew them herself, suggesting she knew more about toxins than she let on.
A Space of Truth and Confrontation – By the grave, Lillian confirms she was murdered. Signa later discovers that Marjorie’s fingers are stained with belladonna, revealing the poisoner. The garden, once a place of concealment, becomes the site of revelation.

Ultimately, the garden represents the buried truths that the Hawthorne family refuses to acknowledge. It is a physical manifestation of the secrets that fester beneath Thorn Grove’s gilded surface.

Character Connections

Lillian Hawthorne: The garden was her refuge and her tomb. Her love of plants—especially toxic ones—reflects her own complicated nature: beautiful, nurturing on the surface, yet capable of harboring dangerous knowledge. After death, her spirit uses the garden to communicate with Signa.
Signa Farrow: The garden is where Signa actively chooses to embrace her bond with Death. She uses belladonna to gain entry, marking her first intentional use of his power. The garden also strengthens her resolve to uncover the truth and protect Blythe.
Marjorie Hargreaves: Her stained fingertips (Chapter 37) directly connect her to the garden’s belladonna. The garden is where her jealousy and love for Elijah festered, leading her to poison Lillian and later Blythe.
Death: He accompanies Signa into the garden, confirming Lillian’s murder and guiding Signa toward the truth. He has visited the garden before, waiting with Lillian during her final illness.
Percy and Blythe Hawthorne: Though they never go to the garden, its secrets directly affect them. Lillian’s death and the ongoing poisoning determine their futures.

Theme Connections

Death and Life Balance – The garden is teeming with life yet harbors death in every poisonous plant. Signa uses the berries to walk the edge between worlds, a physical expression of her unique nature.
Identity and Self-Acceptance – In the garden, Signa accepts her connection to Death and her ability to see spirits. She stops fighting her nature and instead uses it as a tool.
Family and Betrayal – Lillian was murdered by someone she trusted; the garden symbolizes the betrayal at the heart of the Hawthorne family. Marjorie, who loved Elijah, saw Lillian as an obstacle.
Love vs Duty – Marjorie’s love for Elijah drove her to harm Lillian. Elijah’s duty as a father and husband conflicted with his feelings for Marjorie. The garden is the stage where these tensions played out.
Poison and Deception – The garden literally contains the poison used to kill Lillian and slowly kill Blythe. It stands for the deceptions that poison relationships and trust.

Study Questions

Why does Lillian’s spirit insist Signa come to the garden rather than simply revealing the truth elsewhere?
Answer: The garden is where Lillian died and where her strongest emotional energy remains. She cannot easily manifest far from it. More importantly, the garden holds the physical evidence—the belladonna plants—that Signa needs to understand the method of murder. By leading Signa there, Lillian forces her to see the source of the poison and connect it to the Hawthorne household.
How does Signa’s use of belladonna to enter the garden change her relationship with Death?
Answer: For the first time, Signa willingly uses the poison to access Death’s power. Previously she had only taken belladonna to summon him in anger or desperation. In the garden, she uses it deliberately as a tool, marking a shift from fear to acceptance. This choice deepens their bond and signals Signa’s growing comfort with her own immortality.
What do the plants Lillian chose to grow reveal about her character?
Answer: Lillian cultivated both beautiful ornamental flowers and deadly poisonous plants. This duality suggests she was not merely a victim but someone who understood danger and perhaps courted it. Her garden reflects a woman who appreciated nature’s beauty and its lethal potential—a complexity that the other characters overlook when they remember her only as a sweet mother and wife.
How does the hidden garden’s meaning shift from the beginning to the end of Belladonna?
Answer: Initially the garden is a source of terror—a locked, decaying place haunted by an angry spirit. By the end, it becomes a site of revelation and justice. Signa uncovers the truth of Lillian’s murder there, and the garden’s belladonna provides the clue that identifies the poisoner. It transforms from a symbol of hidden secrets to one of exposed truth, mirroring Signa’s own journey from ignorance to knowledge.