Gov. Chris Christie and New Jersey Legislature have declared March 20-26 and every year thereafter as ‘Horticultural Therapy Week’ to coincide with the beginning of spring.
New Jersey is the first in the nation to formally designate this week, initially established by Congress in 2006, to celebrate the benefits of connecting people and plants in vocational, social and therapeutic programs in a peaceful non-threatening environment using horticulture modality to improve the quality of life.
During 2014-2015 legislative session, SJR12 (Bateman-Vitale), AJR13 (Simon-Vanieri-Huttle) passed unanimously by the Full Senate and Assembly and was signed by Christie on May 11, 2015.
Horticultural therapy is beneficial for people of all ages and all walks of life in a variety of rehabilitative, health care, arboreta, and residential settings providing benefits directly through formal programs with trained and credentialed horticultural therapy professionals.