the rhododendron walk

The rhododendron walk is a laurel-hedged path at Misselthwaite Manor that curves around the secret garden and ends at a gate opening into the wood. It is the route Mary Lennox takes when she first hears Dickon Sowerby's low, peculiar whistling and discovers him sitting under a tree, playing a rough wooden pipe, surrounded by wild creatures. Later, when Colin Craven plans his first visit to the secret garden, the rhododendron walk becomes part of the carefully plotted route he, Mary, and Dickon devise to avoid detection. They decide to turn into the shrubbery walks and lose themselves until they come to the long walls, using the rhododendron walk as a natural screen. It is also the place where Colin orders a servant to bring a tea basket, which Dickon and Mary then carry into the secret garden for their afternoon meal. The rhododendron walk thus functions as a transitional space between the formal grounds of the manor and the hidden, transformative world of the secret garden.