Winter Garden

One of the novel’s symbols is Anya’s winter garden. It lies underneath a 50-year-old magnolia tree behind Anya’s house and is small and rectangular. A wrought-iron fence, including an ornate gate, borders the garden. The garden contains a birdbath, sculpted bushes, and a black bench in the center where Anya often sits. It stands apart from the rest of the Whitsons’ orchard because it is contained and orderly compared to the orchard’s sprawling chaos. A single copper column in the winter garden supports a white marble bowl. Nina discovers the Russian letters on this column representing Leo’s, Anya’s, and Sasha’s initials. After Evan’s death, a second copper column appears, engraved with an E. The initials on each column represent those who have died in each of Anya’s families. The first column references her family in Russia, and the second column appears for Evan, the head of her family in America.

At the novel’s beginning, the winter garden symbolizes a place of grief and loss. Meredith and Nina often find their mother sitting alone in the garden, especially after Evan’s death. Sometimes, she knits in the garden, and sometimes, she looks like she’s praying. Due to Anya’s upbringing in Russia, she often sits in the garden with minimal clothing, even during winter. This concerns her daughters, yet Anya persistently tells them she’s survived worse. The garden’s columns are the equivalent of headstones, further illustrating that the garden is a place for Anya to remember the dead. When Anya goes to Stacey’s house and discovers she’s her long-lost daughter, Stacey shows her mother her own garden, which has a headstone for Sasha, Leo, and Anya, whom Stacey likewise believed to be dead. Thus, both women use these gardens as a place to remember their loved ones and try to overcome their traumatic losses.

As the novel progresses, the winter garden’s significance changes. While it was once a place of grief and loss, where Anya’s posture shifted because she no longer had to pretend to be strong, it eventually becomes a place of healing and redemption. This shift begins when Nina drops her father’s box of ashes, scattering them all over the garden. Meredith, Nina, and Anya laugh over the accident, something they have never done before. This moment marks the garden’s shift into a place of healing and redemption. This significance deepens nine years after Anya returns to Belye Nochi after the Alaskan cruise. She goes into her garden and sees Sasha and Leo. Sasha asks her to go with him, and she does, symbolizing Anya’s death. Anya’s passing away in the winter garden demonstrates her deep connection to it and how it becomes a place where she often grieves yet ultimately finds redemption.