56 pages • 1 hour read
Holly RinglandThe Lost Flowers of Alice Hart
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “Copper-cups”
June regrets Alice learning about her parents from the note in the book. Before Alice came, she packed all reminders of Clem and Agnes in her storage shed in town. In June’s study, she has a hazelwood box hand-carved by Clem. It features Ruth, Wattle, June, and flowers surrounding Clem in the center. June thinks his work is beautiful but that it also shows that Clem was selfish.
When June told Agnes she was bequeathing Thornfield to her instead of her son, Clem overhead. Clem was so upset that he fled and cut off contact with June and the Flowers. June didn’t think he was deserving. Now, she carries the burden of these secrets.
After June buried her father at age 18, she went to the river, where she met a handsome, traveling man. They made love, and he returned every year. A few years later, when June was pregnant with Clem, the man didn’t return. June thinks their family’s women have bad luck with love. She works all night on a gift for Alice’s 10th birthday.
Since June won’t pursue the adoption, Twig secretly calls the state about information regarding adopting Alice’s little brother.
Alice opens her gift from June, which is a resin flower locket with a picture of Agnes inside. In June’s card, she apologizes for not talking about the hard things; she promises that if Alice finds her voice, she will too. The locket flowers, Sturt desert peas, mean “Have courage, take heart” (154). Alice treasures the gift.
Alice meets Oggi at the river to celebrate. He brings her a picnic and a fairy tale book, which Alice loves. She shows Oggi her necklace and finally speaks, explaining that the picture is her mother. Oggi is thrilled when Alice talks.
That night, Alice thanks Candy and the other Flowers for her birthday cake and gifts. The women are ecstatic over Alice finally speaking.
Chapter 14 Summary: “River Red Gum”
About seven years later, Alice is 17 years old. She passes her driver’s license test and drives to Oggi’s house. Oggi has turned from her best friend into her true love. He always treats Alice affectionately. Oggi reveals a Volkswagen Beetle he bought for her by working extra shifts at the timber yard. They kiss passionately.
At Thornfield, June presents Alice with a new truck that reads “Alice Hart, Floriographer. Thornfield Farm, where wildflowers bloom” on the side (169). Alice doesn’t want to accept the truck or the responsibility it represents. June is upset that Oggi also gave Alice a car and decides Oggi should keep it. Alice feels that June is too controlling.
Later, Oggi and Alice go to the river. They discuss her desire for a different future from June’s plan. By next year, when she’s 18, Oggi will have enough money to fly them to Bulgaria. He asks if Alice would want to move with him and his mother; they could have a rose farm. He tells her romantic places and things they’ll do in Bulgaria. Alice happily accepts his offer. She feels guilty leaving June, but she’s blissful about the idea of starting a life with Oggi in Bulgaria, including marrying him and having children.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Blue Lady Orchid”
From the porch, Twig watches Alice meet Oggi each night. She has a hunch that Alice is going to flee, like Clem and Agnes, but for better reasons.
Twig discovered that Alice’s little brother is in the care of a woman Agnes named in her will. She’s tried to convince June to tell Alice the truth about Alice’s sibling, but June won’t.
Twig follows Alice to the river, where she watches the lovers embrace. The couple discuss their plans to leave for Bulgaria in a few days. Though she approves of Alice’s love, Twig plans to tell Alice about her brother the next morning.
However, June cries and tells Twig that she did something hard because she knows what is best for Alice. Even though Alice is 18 and independent, June doesn’t think she can lose more of her family.
On the scheduled night, Alice goes to meet Oggi. She waits at the river for hours, but he never arrives. She rushes home, where June eases her heartache. Alice grieves Oggi’s betrayal, not knowing June’s implied involvement in Oggi’s failure to arrive at the river.
Chapter 16 Summary: “Gorse Bitter Pea”
At age 26, Alice receives a letter from Oggi. He writes that he’s never stopped thinking of her, but he’s happy in Bulgaria, where he has a wife and daughter. He wishes Alice well. Oggi mentions a fairy tale his daughter loves, about a naive wolf and a sly fox and mentions that he’s writing to “close the wound” (193). Alice is distraught over his letter and analyzes its meaning.
Alice drives to Oggi’s abandoned house and screams his name. Among other questions, she wonders why he’d contact her now. She cries while a thunderstorm worsens.
Alice drives home to find the Flowers saving as many plants as they can from the storm. They tie things down and get ready for a flood. June is worried the farm may be destroyed by the weather.
The flood holds off while they have dinner. Alice mentions Oggi’s letter, which leads her to question her place in the world. She vents to Candy, Twig, and June that she doesn’t know where she fits in and again asks about her family history. June replies with her standard lines about how she’ll always be there for Alice, but her dismissal annoys Alice. June has never given her answers. June walks away, and Candy tells Alice that June has had so much pain in the past, she doesn’t want to dig up the interconnected stories. Alice responds that she deserves the truth.
That night, Alice can’t sleep. She overhears Twig and June talking. Twig warns June that she’s close to losing Alice. They argue, and June admits that she called Immigration on Oggi’s family. Alice confronts June about having Oggi and his mom deported. June’s betrayal and control hurt her deeply. She realizes that Oggi thought Alice was like the sly fox in the fairy tale, and he was the naive wolf who trusted her. Alice is furious.
They argue until Alice rushes outside. She drives in the rain while June, Twig, and Candy try to stop her. As the storm floods the flowers, Alice drives away from the wreckage.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Showy Banksia”
Alice drives the entire night. She considers going back to the sea, where she lived as a girl, but instinct pulls her further inland. For three days, Alice lives a nomadic life, stopping in little towns and hotels. She reaches the desert, where the heat and red color ignite a feeling of belonging in her.
At a gas station in the desert, she finds an abandoned, unhealthy puppy. She names her Pip. The puppy is missing fur, and she pees blood in Alice’s truck. Alice rushes to the town’s vet.
The vet, Moss, diagnoses Pip with mange, a urinary tract infection, and malnourishment. Alice is scared, but Moss assures her that he’ll bring Pip back to health.
When Alice leaves, she feels overwhelmed by the revelation of Oggi’s deportation and passes out by her car. Moss calls for a doctor. He also notices Alice’s name and the Thornfield Farm logo on her truck.
Alice wakes up at a doctor’s office. She’s dehydrated and had a panic attack, which hadn’t happened in years, but the doctor clears her to leave. Moss, who is kind and supportive, stays with her. After he brings Alice to her truck, he suggests that she stay at the pub with his friend Merle. Alice gets a room at the pub, where she sobs out her emotions about Oggi and leaving June, the Flowers, and Thornfield Farm behind.
Chapter 18 Summary: “Orange Immortelle”
Alice paints her truck turquoise and adds monarch butterfly stickers. She covers her name and the Thornfield logo so that she can move forward.
Over the next few weeks, Alice hikes around the desert, exploring the new settings while suppressing her pain and questions about Oggi, June, and her family. The desert brings her comfort. She picks desert plants until she fills a notebook with pressed flowers. She also checks out many books from the library.
Moss calls to tell her Pip is better. Alice appreciates his consideration and warmth and agrees to meet him tomorrow to pick up Pip.
Because he’s interested in her, Moss searches for Alice online. He finds Thornfield’s website and calls the number. Moss believes Alice is running, so he wants to tell Thornfield about Alice’s location and that she’s safe.
At the pub, Alice meets Sarah, who is a ranger at nearby Kililpitjara National Park. Sarah describes an open position for a visitor services ranger at the park. Given Alice’s background in communications and flower farm work, she thinks Alice would be a fit. She’d live and work at the park. Alice takes Sarah’s business card.
Alice researches Kililpitjara National Park. She’s touched by a photo of a circle of red flowers, the Sturt desert pea. They match her locket flowers. In the park’s large crater, the desert peas bloom for most of the year. The Aboriginal story describes how a goddess’s baby fell to earth to make the crater, so the mother flung her heart to the earth to be with her fallen baby. The flowers are a sign of the goddess’s sacrifice and mourning. Guests are welcome to walk the crater, but they’re prohibited from picking the flowers. Many guests still pick them, which is disrespectful to the Aboriginal culture and their sacred site of grief.
Chapters 13-18 Analysis
As the novel’s timeline rapidly jumps ahead from Alice’s 10th birthday through her late teens and early adulthood, The Impact of Secrets comes to the fore as June’s secrecy finally creates a rift in her relationship with Alice. Alice’s discovery that June told Immigration about Oggi is a pivotal moment of conflict and character growth. Alice hadn’t fought with June since she was a little girl and threw the book with her father’s note in a rage. Despite June’s promise to Alice that they’d find their voices together, June never upholds her side of the agreement, despite Alice’s requests for more information about her parents. Over the next several chapters, which encompass 16 years of Alice’s life, Alice’s animosity and resentment toward June builds, and finding out that June betrayed her—and therefore Oggi—is her breaking point. June’s secrets are too much for her to bear, so she finally uses her voice as a weapon: “I’m getting pretty sick of being palmed off with advice to be grateful for the story I have, as a way of avoiding the stories I don’t” (198). Alice fighting for her lost love reflects a shift in her character, which has long been agreeable and quiet. By shouting at June and leaving Thornfield in fury, Alice shows she can’t be appeased any longer. Alice cannot stomach dishonesty or betrayal—two things she once thought Oggi did to her, and emotions she will soon experience through her relationship with Dylan.
The author’s use of sensory imagery and setting during her fight with June establishes a mood of disruption and upheaval. The intense thunderstorm and oncoming floods, which threaten the farm, establish a sense of danger and drama, as well as threatened loss, which is June’s worst fear. That June chooses to stay outside and wait for Alice to come back shows that she has become less selfish; she doesn’t care if she’s hurt, as long as Alice returns safely from the storm: “[June] swayed on the spot, in the dark, lashed by the weather. [...] Alice would come back. And then June could explain. When the next gust hit, June fell to her knees” (200). The stormy setting mirrors June’s inner conflict as she attempts to overcome her stubbornness and self-preservation. Though June has always relied on Alice bending, rather than bending herself, the image of her dropping to her knees suggests that she might be ready to compromise and finally tell Alice the truth. However, the foreboding storm scene also hints at Thornfield Farm being destroyed, as well as foreshadowing June’s impending death.
In the new desert location, the national park’s crater is a substantial symbol that gains Alice’s attention and reflects the importance of stories. The crater is the reason Alice applies for the job. In fact, the images and the Aboriginal story about the crater convince Alice to apply because it touches her emotionally: “The heart of the crater was a circle of Sturt’s desert peas in mind-blowing, blood-red bloom. She gripped her locket as she scrolled down” (222). The desert peas match those in her locket with Agnes’s picture. To Alice’s family, the desert peas mean “Have courage, take heart” (154). To the Aboriginal culture, it is a part of the goddess’s heart, a flower of mourning. The multiple meanings of the flower enrich Alice’s perspective and reveal how storytelling is an important aspect in every culture.
In the calm of the desert, however, Alice reignites the theme of Relationships with the Natural World through her interaction with a new landscape and its flowers. Alice is alone for the first time in her life, and her independence leads to exploration. Her unexpected sense of comfort suggests her kinship to a new landscape, one that contrasts dramatically with the sea she once loved. The setting reflects her change to becoming bolder and more self-sufficient and finding healing in the land to overcome her parents’ deaths, June’s betrayal, and losing Oggi’s love. Notably, Alice still picks flowers, since flowers are in her blood and are a constant, meaningful hobby for her throughout the book: “She had started to pick and press them, without fully admitting to herself that it was the familiarity of the flowers that brought her the most solace” (215). While many of the species are new to her, the desert flowers reflect that she still has a connection to her maternal figures. The flowers also give her a means to create her own dictionary for a language of flowers, which shows her blossoming love of writing.
