CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) - Stubby gardening shears in hand, cancer patient Judy DeLauder peered down into the heart of a dwarf juniper shrub before making the first cut.
She clipped and snipped away at the scruffy evergreen during a recent horticultural therapy session at Chesapeake General Hospital. The only part of the plant to survive the carnage were the trunk and a branch that trailed artfully over the side.
A type of holistic medicine, the therapy relieves pain, reduces stress and improves self-esteem, mood and muscle tone. That's why nine cancer patients spent a recent morning turning stumpy shrubs into elegant, aged-looking bonsai trees.
"Imagine you are pruning out disease," said Mary K. Scott, a Norfolk Botanical Garden horticultural therapy manager. "As you nurture your bonsai tree, visualize and you can use it to heal yourself."
The therapy sessions are part of a new Botanical Garden program called Healing Hands, which is aimed at helping patients improve their spirits and health. Ann Parsons, a Botanical Garden spokeswoman, said it is the first time that the horticultural program has been taught in a local hospital.
The Denver-based horticultural therapy association doesn't have statistics on the number of people participating in the therapy, but horticultural programs have spread to the nation's hospitals, physical and substance abuse rehabilitation centers, correlational facilities, hospices, public and private schools and nursing homes.
Universities now offer undergraduate and master's degrees in horticultural therapy.
One of the world's foremost horticultural therapists is Diane Relf, a Virginia Tech Department of Horticulture professor emeritus.
The health benefits of gardening have been known since ancient times. Dr. Benjamin Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, reported that gardens had a positive effect on the mentally ill.
A 2003 study paid for by the National Institutes of Health found that women recovering from breast cancer surgery suffered less depression and improved cognitive skills after walking in a garden a few times a week.
"When a person is ill, they are under a lot of stress, and they feel they have no control over their lives," said Gabriela Harvey, an association board member and registered horticultural therapist who lives in Williamsburg.
Something as simple as taking care of a plant reduces the stress and fear, she said during a telephone interview. Patients recover quicker in a green environment with plants than a sterile room, she said.
DeLauder, 56, is becoming a believer.
An avid gardener before she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2005, she came to the bonsai tree session with a pair of gardening gloves and silk kimonos for the women to wear.
"Even though you don't feel like going out, you do because you know you will be around plants and flowers," DeLauder said at her home a few days after the therapy session.
