The Good Witch's Garden is a 2009 American television film that aired on the Hallmark Channel on February 7, 2009 and is the second installment in the series of The Good Witch television movies.
Synopsis[]
Cassie has settled into Middleton and is busy making a home of Grey House. Her boyfriend, Sheriff Jake Russell, and his kids are happy to have Cassie in the neighborhood, but she has yet to gain the trust of some people in town. Before long, a stranger rolls into town with papers entitling him to legal ownership of Grey House. Before she knows it, Cassie is left without a home and is convinced Middleton isn't where she belongs. Ultimately, everyone will learn holding on too tightly to something can make it more likely that things will slip through your fingers.
Cast[]
- Catherine Bell as Cassandra Nightingale
- Chris Potter as Chief of Police Jake Russell
- Matthew Knight as Brandon Russell
- Hannah Endicott-Douglas as Lori Russell
- Peter MacNeill as George O'Hanrahan
- Catherine Disher as Martha Tinsdale
- Paul Miller as Mayor Tom Tinsdale
- Noah Cappe as Deputy Derek Sanders
- Elizabeth Lennie as Gwen
- Rob Stewart as Nick Chasen
Plot[]
Martha Tinsdale, the wife of the mayor of Middleton, and fellow Garden Club member Gwen are walking in front of Grey House, where Cassandra “Cassie” Nightingale lives. Outside it is a greenhouse filled with exotic plants, one of which ensnares Martha’s ankle, scaring her away.
Raking the leaves with Cassie in her yard are Brandon Russell, 13, his sister Lori, 11, and their grandfather George. Jake Russell pulls up in his police car and tells Cassie that Martha came to the police station earlier to report having been attacked by one of her plants. Cassie assures him her house is a safe, perfect place for the Middleton Bicentennial Celebration.
Before George leaves, Cassie asks him to stop by the nursery and pick up some remedy for her plants. Cassie also tells George she’s thinking of taking in boarders in order to help pay for all the renovations she’s been making on Grey House. In no time, a new guy in town, Nick Chasen, shows up and is looking for a place to stay. He’s a charming man in his early 40s, and Cassie welcomes him to board at Grey House.
George stops by the nursery, where the Garden Club is having a meeting. The nursery is closed, but George’s innocent charm wins over the ladies at the meeting and they allow him in.
Meanwhile, Lori is at home working on a project with her classmate Jess. But the moment Lori mentions a reading assignment, Jess comes up with a reason to leave right away. Lori is frustrated, but she brightens when she sees Cassie sent dinner home with Jake for them. Jake confides in George later that he’s worried about Brandon and the new friends he’s made.
Back at Cassie’s, Nick tells Cassie he is a descendent of Captain Charles Hamblin, the man who Elizabeth Merriwick, better known as “the Grey Lady” and the original owner of Grey House, fell in love with. Jake stops in to pick up Cassie for dinner and is surprised to find out she’s taking in boarders; he warns Cassie not to be too trusting of strangers.
The next morning, Lori stops by Cassie’s house on her way to school. She’s looking for some magic to make Jess work harder on their project. Cassie gives her large, mysterious looking, wooden key and tells her to see if she and Jess can figure out its significance.
In town, Brandon is dealing with peer pressure; Steve and Duke, the boys he’s hanging out with, are encouraging him to pull a nasty prank, but Brandon’s not sure he wants to. Cassie sees the boys together in town, where she also runs into Martha. Like Jake, Martha is also concerned about Cassie taking in boarders; she worries it will just invite strangers to Middleton. When Cassie gets home, she finds Nick outside. Nick surprises her by offering to buy Grey House from her, but she immediately turns down his offer.
While Lori and Jess investigate the key from Cassie, George is overwhelmed by all the women from the Garden Club pursuing him; they’re making it harder for him to get to Gwen, the one of them he actually has eyes for.
Meanwhile, Jake still doesn’t think having Nick stay at Grey House is a good idea, but Cassie takes it as him not trusting her. Someone Nick is making a good impression on, surprisingly, is Martha, especially when he joins her Bicentennial Celebration committee. But Jake is uncomfortable with how much Nick knows about Cassie’s past; he tries to call him on it when he sees Nick in town, but Cassie shows up before he can get any information.
Cassie enlists their help in moving her Veritas plant, which they insist is dead. When Nick leaves the room, Jake tells Cassie he has been looking into Nick’s background. He tries to convince Cassie his concern is genuine, but she accuses him of simply being too protective after having lost his wife. Jake decides maybe he and Cassie are too different to be in a relationship.
Brandon’s friends tell him they’re planning on trashing the Bicentennial Celebration, and if he doesn’t want to join them, he must be a loser. Meanwhile, Lori and Jess are actually making progress on their project, and Jess confesses to Lori her big secret: She can’t read.
Jake shows Cassie the documents Nick has served him: A deed entitling him to ownership of Grey House. Cassie is sad to have her heritage stolen from her, and Jake promises he’ll fight it with her.
It being her last night in Grey House, Cassie has George, Jake, and the kids over for dinner. It’s a bittersweet gathering, and afterwards she tells Jake she found her diary tampered with. The next day, Nick sees Cassie off; to his disappointment, she’s leaving her plants with him.
The next day, George stops by the nursery, where he invites Gwen to have coffee with him; she happily accepts. Meanwhile, Lori and Jess are at the Historical Society Library looking for books for their project, when they come across a book of old stories written the Grey Lady. Jake is just breaking the news to Cassie that Nick is selling Grey House to a developer, when Lori and Jess rush in with the book they’ve found. Cassie notices the stories in the book are all about Captain Charles Hamblin, and she realizes all of Nick’s claims were based on the stories in the book, a work of fiction.
Cassie and Jake head immediately to Grey House, where they confront Nick and accuse him of lying about his identity, reading Cassie’s diary and forging the deed. He tries to escape, but Jake arrests him.
Cassie moves back into Grey House, where the Bicentennial Celebration takes place as planned, and nearly the entire town is in attendance. Also as planned, Brandon goes behind the party tent to meet his friends, who are digging up the spikes that hold the tent down. When they pressure him to help them, Brandon stands his ground.
As George dances with Gwen, and Jake with Cassie, Jess nervously but confidently reads an announcement to the crowd. As everyone moves to the lawn to watch the fireworks, Jake surprises Cassie with an engagement ring. She slips it onto her finger, promising him the magic between them won’t ever fade.
Notes and Trivia[]
- Good Witch's Garden takes place in the fall of 2009, setting this movie approximately a year after The Good Witch.
- Martha mentions that Cassie still has flowers growing in her garden "after the first frost", implying it is the Autumn. Cassie herself says that maybe Mother Nature is yawning "in preparation for a long winter's nap."
- Brandon remarks that it's November when Cassie says if he and Lori listen carefully, they can hear the garden grow.
- When Martha is "attacked" by one of the vines of Cassie's flowers, Cassie is seen watching the incident unfold. Her involvement in the plant wrapping around Martha's ankle is left purposefully ambiguous, as she later tells Jake her plans would never attack anyone, but would give them a hug. A similar situation happens near the end of the film when Nick's scam is revealed and he tries to flee, causing the plants to stop him.
- Nick Chasen is Cassie's first B&B guest, and he paid in advance.
- Cassie is an orphan who spent so many years wandering. She was in a foster home, than she ran away.
- Cassie has a handwritten will that's not notarized.
- Elizabeth Merriwick, the Grey Lady, published a book of stories about sea Captain Charles Hamblin.
Quotes[]
A text copy of the film's Closed Captions is available.[1]
George: You've made a wonderful home here, Cassie.
Cassie: Thank you. That's why I'm digging extra deep today, so the roots really take hold. I've found my one true home here, George. I can finally say, this is where I belong.
George: Takes a lot of green to keep a garden green.
Cassie: Yes, it does. And add that to the upkeep on Grey House, and the fuel bills. That's why I've decided to open it up to a few guests.
George: Well, you certainly have enough room.
Cassie: A bed and breakfast…My B & B. Beautiful and bewitching.
Cassie: And this is my friend and adviser, Isis.
Martha: I understand that you have a paying guest staying at Grey House.
Cassie: Only one so far. But I have room for a couple more.
Martha: You're also hosting our Bicentennial party. Do you want our distinguished guests to think of Grey House as some sort of flophouse for vagrants?
Cassie: A bed and breakfast, Martha.
Martha: Do you think it's a good idea?
Cassie: The extra income will help pay some bills. You know how it is with these fixer-uppers.
Martha: But, I mean, throwing open your doors to strangers off the street.
Cassie: Well, they won't be strangers for long.
Martha: Frankly, I don't believe that you're the best judge of people.
Cassie: I don't judge people, Martha. Especially when I first meet them. People have a way of showing you who they really are if you just give them time.
Cassie: Well, my love for Grey House is unconditional. How does the old poem go? "Even the weariest river winds its way safe to sea." This home is the end of a very long journey for me.
Jake: Cassie, after 18 years of being a cop, I've learned a few things. Bad things can happen to good people.
Cassie: Just think of all the good things you'd miss out on if you always had that attitude.
Jake: Cassie. You have this wonderful way of bringing out the best in people. I just don't want anyone to take advantage of that.
Cassie: I'm not worried.
Jake: Well, maybe you should be. We can't afford to be too trusting.
Cassie: I can't afford not to.
Jake: I know you have bills. I know [Cassie interrupts Jake].
Cassie: Jake, a life where you can't trust people is a pretty poor life.
Cassie: Well, good friends are hard to come by. I know. When I was a teen, I moved around a lot. The minute I made new friends, I was off to the next foster home. Making new friends was just as hard as losing the old ones…I had a pretty rough time as a teen. This helped me through those times. Maybe it'll help you.
Brandon: A mirror?
Cassie: When all the questions were spinning around in my head, I just took a good long look at myself and the answer would come.
Jake: For heaven's sake, Cassie. Can't you see that he's not on the level?
Cassie: I'll tell you what I see. I see a man whose heart was broken when his wife died. And now he protects himself by expecting the worst from everyone.
Jake: This isn't about my heart.
Cassie: Well, I think it is.
Jake: Why are you being so hardheaded?
Cassie: Why are you so hardhearted? Just trust that the truth will show itself.
Cassie: Did I wake you? Sorry. I couldn't sleep.
Nick: For a moment, I thought this house was haunted.
Cassie: Oh. Of course, it is. All sorts of souls and scoundrels up and about at night.
Jake: I'm a cop, and you're who you always are.
Cassie: You say that as if it's a bad thing.
Jake: It's just we're so different. That's all.
Cassie: I've got 83 different species in my garden, and they all get along just fine.
Lori: But the magic hasn't gone away. It's still working.
Cassie: You still believe?
Lori: I asked you for help with Jess, remember? Because I thought she was lazy. But she told me something she's never told anybody. Reading is really, really hard for her. But now she's getting help…Jess told me her secret, and I helped her. That's the real magic, isn't it? Helping other people.
Cassie: Sometimes you have to dig a little deeper.
Jake [quoting Cassie]: Trust and the truth will show itself.
Brandon: What is it?
Cassie: Be very, very quiet. [Silent pause] Do you hear that?
Brandon: What? The rain?
Cassie: No, listen carefully. You can hear the garden grow.
Brandon: But it's November. I thought the growing season was over.
Cassie: Always growing. Always changing.
George: We've got rain falling.
Cassie: Yes, it's a bit romantic, isn't it, George?
George: I'm a little too old for that kind of thing.
Cassie: Some of the best things bloom late in the season.
Cassie: I can go anywhere in my dreams.
Nick: Cassie, I hope there are no hard feelings about this.
Cassie: Hard feelings. What a phrase. Feelings are tender. The moment they become hard, you're not really feeling anymore.
Jake: Cassie, you're quite a host.
Cassie: It's the guests who make the party.
Jake: I might have a trick of my own up my sleeve. Open it. Marry me?
Cassie: Yes.
Jake: I hope the magic never fades.
Cassie: It won't. Trust me.
Cassie-isms[]
Dig extra deep so the roots take hold. [Dig extra deep so the roots of your friendships take hold.]
Open your doors to strangers and they won’t be strangers for long.
People will show you who they really are if you give them time.
Take a good long look at yourself and the answer will come.
Give the benefit of the doubt.
Trust that the truth will show itself.
Everyone has a right to change.
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