For more than 30 years, Audrey Chadwick, a registered nurse, horticulture therapist and a Master Gardener since 1981, is joined by other volunteers who help patients recovering from strokes select flowers and cut stems to make floral arrangements or do other gardening crafts. “I particularly like to work with herbs, because it stimulates memory,” Chadwick said. “For example, we made paper; we made crowns out of rosemary; we dyed eggs for Easter with natural dyes.” The creativity that patients use in designing stimulates their brains. The use of fine motor skills in cutting stems and arranging flowers is an exercise in coordination that can reinforce other types of therapy. In addition, plants and flowers have a calming effect that improves the patient’s overall sense of well-being. Chadwick told the story of one of her favorite patients, a 41-year-old stroke victim and NASA engineer whom the nurses had asked her to work with one-on-one. She said when he first came in, he was angry from his debilitating condition and told her that he wasn’t going to do anything. Chadwick went to work breaking off pieces of eucalyptus for potpourri, and before long the patient joined in. “When he got ready to leave (that day), he turned to me and said, ?EUR??,,????'??I feel like I’ve had a walk in the forest. Thank you,’” Chadwick was honored with the Special Award of Merit in 2002 by the Texas Master Gardener Association for the Galveston County Horticulture Therapy Project.

In 1994, Chris LaChance, Extension program coordinator for the WaterSmart Landscaping Program in Houston, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Following two surgeries and two rounds of chemotherapy, this cancer survivor said she wanted to share with staff and future M.D. Anderson Cancer Center patients her gardening experience and how her relationship with nature helped her during treatment. LaChance, who is also a volunteer Master Gardener, asked for help from her daughter and fellow Master Gardeners in Galveston. M.D. Anderson designated several existing plant beds in front of the R. Lee Clark Clinic in Houston to convert into nurturing habitats for butterflies. Because of her work with the WaterSmart Landscaping Program, LaChance said she chose native and non-invasive adapted plants that would attract butterflies, yet require less water and not need fertilizer or other chemicals to thrive. This gardening method reduces run-off pollution, which is WaterSmart Landscaping’s goal. “Volunteers named the garden the Chrysalis Project as a play on words, referring to the emerging butterfly – whole and healed – and my first name,” LaChance said. ?EUR??,,????'??Caring for and connecting with nature are ways to heal the spirit,” LaChance said. ” And, I firmly believe the mind, spirit and body are connected.” “But also, I think for the patients, it’s to be able to see the renewal of life and the plants change and that life goes on with the change in our gardens.