When Handel was just a baby, her mother died near a human couple's summer home, still carrying her, and the humans found her. They decided to keep the little baby Dryad, and they raised her and became the only family she'd ever known. While she was left in their summer home, the couple died in a car accident. Young Handel was forgotten in the home, the couple never came back.

The humans didn't really know anything about Dryads, so they weren't able to tell her how important it was that she go and find a tree to bond to and what the signs were that it was time. When the time came, she refused to leave the house, so in desperation, her body bonded to the roses just outside the house. The spell in her body has encouraged the growth of the roses until they completely overgrew the house.

Later, the other Dryads contacted her, but it was a while before she let them talk to her.