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The Community Gardens[1] are a Seattle location featured on ABC's Once Upon a Time. It first appears in the first episode of the seventh season.
History
Before the Land Without Magic lost its magic, a magical grove inhabited by Tree Nymphs stood at this location. Thousands of years after Gothel, the last tree nymph, purged the land of all life out of vengeance for humans destroying her home and killing the rest of the tree nymphs, a city known as Seattle was built atop the former location of the grove. ("Flower Child")
The Community Gardens are created when a curse is cast on the people of the New Enchanted Forest, creating the neighborhood of Hyperion Heights in Seattle. The gardens are located directly on top of an underground cavern where petrified remnants of the ancient Tree Nymphs' Grove are located. At one point, it was a beautiful garden where things grew, but over time people stopped caring about it and it became dusty and dead. ("Hyperion Heights," "Flower Child")
After running away to meet Henry, her biological father, Lucy steals his laptop and later goes to the community gardens. Her mother, Jacinda Vidrio, finds her there just as she is about to throw a coin into the wishing well. Though Lucy insists that the quarter she found was a sign, Jacinda reminds her that she does not believe in signs. Lucy makes the wish anyway, wishing something would grow in the garden, but nothing happens. Lucy assures her mother that just because nothing happened immediately does not mean the wish won't come true, though Jacinda remains doubtful. She then takes Henry's laptop back to him at Roni's. Upon finding his parked car is gone, Henry tracks down Lucy in the gardens where she is tossing hyacinth seeds onto some empty soil lots. He accuses her of making his car disappear, but she denies having anything to do with it. Lucy tries to keep him from leaving, adamant in her belief about the curse and his forgotten memories, though Henry still thinks Lucy simply has a wild imagination. The girl insists he hasn't accepted the truth yet and this is why he hasn't been able to write his new book, however, Henry apologizes and leaves the garden. Jacinda then shows up her car to pick up her daughter, in the hopes of starting a new life with her on a nearby island, to keep her stepmother Victoria from seizing custody of her child. Later that night, Jacinda finds a quarter on the floor of Mr. Cluck's Chicken Shack while sweeping and takes it to the garden, where she makes a wish before throwing it into the well. Unbeknownst to her, some hyacinths begin to rapidly bloom as she leaves. ("Hyperion Heights")
Some of these flowers from the garden are delivered to Victoria in her office with a notecard from Lucy mentioning that they just started blooming yesterday. ("A Pirate's Life")
After Lucy is taken away from Jacinda into Victoria's care, Lucy and Jacinda begin writing letters and leaving them in the community garden's wishing well for each other. Meanwhile, Victoria bribes a executive director in charge of construction in Hyperion Heights so she can obtain a permit to demolish the old garden and build new condos in its place. On the same day Jacinda goes to the wishing well to leave a letter for Lucy, Victoria shortly thereafter with a construction crew. Jacinda begs her stepmother to reconsider for Lucy's sake as the girl loves the garden and put so much work into the flowers, but Victoria insists it's too late and simply tells her to leave or risk being buried alive. Roni, discovering that the demolition can be halted if enough people in the community disagree with it, gives Jacinda the idea to start a petition. As the Jacinda collects up to 100 signatures from the community, Lucy suggests to Henry that Victoria wants something from the underground tunnels under the garden. Henry is doubtful, though, unknown to him, Lucy is actually right, as Victoria's true aim is to extract a coffin containing her daughter Anastasia's preserved body. He goes to the dig site with Lucy, who becomes excited after seeing the rubble has uncovered something before jumping into the hole, as a concerned Henry follows her. At a dead-end in the tunnel, Lucy discovers a piece of Cinderella's glass slipper and vows to show it to Jacinda as proof that the curse is real. Victoria offers Jacinda one of the condos for her and Lucy if she burns the petition, which she does, much to Lucy's disappointment. While Jacinda just wants to be with her daughter even if it means giving up on the garden, Roni persuades her to stop allowing Victoria to take everything from her. Later in the garden, Lucy and Henry arrive to see Jacinda, Roni, and other members of the community gathered all together. Jacinda implores the townspeople to sign the petition again and publicly acknowledges Lucy's persisting belief in the garden as the reason why she is fighting for it too. She then rallies them into showing solidarity against Victoria's plans by planting more flowers. Afterward, Jacinda, Henry, and Lucy walk along a street near the garden as they eat ice cream. ("The Garden of Forking Paths")
As Gothel waits for the completion of her spell to destroy humanity, she approaches the community garden well as Roni attempts to attack her from behind with a bat. Gothel easily pulverizes the weapon with her magic, to which Roni grabs one of the broken pieces of the bat and uses it as a stake. Roni continues to be overpowered by Gothel but refuses to give up until the latter throws her several feet away and knocks her unconscious. Henry, having regained his memories, rushes into the garden to his mother's side. As he begs her to come back to him, he kisses her forehead and breaks the curse. ("Is This Henry Mills?")Trivia
On-Screen Notes
- The flower that springs to life in the old garden is a hyacinth, the same as Cinderella's lucky flower. ("Hyperion Heights")
Production Notes
- The dead garden at the beginning of Season Seven is a metaphor for the characters and the situation they're in.[2]
Props Notes
- The wishing well prop[1] was previously use for the Storybrooke wishing well,[3] though the roof and supports have since been removed. ("Hyperion Heights" et al.)
- Before becoming the wishing well, the same well prop[3] was used for the well where Prince Thomas disappears in "The Price of Gold"[4] and the well in Rumplestiltskin's Frontlands village in "Desperate Souls."[5] The supporting structure for the pulley, and the pulley itself, were replaced for the wishing well prop, and a roof was added to the top.
- The wishing well prop also doubles as many other wells throughout the series:
- It was used for the well outside Granny's cottage, the one where Red Riding Hood goes to collect water with Snow White and sees that the water is full of blood, in "Red-Handed."[6]
- It appears outside the Mad Hatter's cottage in "Hat Trick."[7]
- It is seen outside Ruth's cabin in "Lady of the Lake."[8]
- It was used for the well where Zelena reads the Book of Records and Dorothy collects water in Oz in "Kansas."[9] The roof over the wishing well was removed and a different supporting structure for the pulley was added for this episode while protruding stone carvings were added to the bottom of the well.
- It appears in Arthur's village in "The Broken Kingdom"[10] and "Nimue."[11]
- It appears in the village that was attacked by the Evil Queen in the Season Six episode "A Bitter Draught.[12] The roof over the wishing well was removed for this episode.
- A duplicate of the wishing well appears on Mount Olympus in "Leaving Storybrooke."[13]
Filming Locations
- The Off Leash Dog Park opposite New Westminster station in the city of New Westminster doubles as the Community Gardens for the show.[14] The station sign can be glimpsed in the background when Henry rounds the corner in "Hyperion Heights."[15]
Appearances
| Once Upon a Time: Season Seven | ||||||||||
| "Hyperion Heights": | "A Pirate's Life": | "The Garden of Forking Paths": | "Beauty": | "Greenbacks": | "Wake Up Call": | "Eloise Gardener": | "Pretty in Blue": | "One Little Tear": | "The Eighth Witch": | "Secret Garden": |
| Appears | Absent | Appears | Mentioned | Absent | Mentioned | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent |
| "A Taste of the Heights": | "Knightfall": | "The Girl in the Tower": | "Sisterhood": | "Breadcrumbs": | "Chosen": | "The Guardian": | "Flower Child": | "Is This Henry Mills?": | "Homecoming": | "Leaving Storybrooke": |
| Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Absent | Appears | Appears | Absent | Absent |
