A survey was conducted using a mailed questionnaire to investigate the use of horticulture in welfare institutions and psychiatric hospitals in Fukuoka Prefecture. Approximately 70% of the 230 surveyed institutions and hospitals responded. Sixty-two% of the responding institutions had the clients engaged in horticulture. All of them reported having sites for horticultural activities, including container gardening. It was found that farms and flower gardens were the most commonly used sites. Horticultural activities were found to be both fewer in frequency and shorter in duration at the psychiatric hospitals than at the institutions for the intellectually disabled. In general, group sessions of 6-20 clients were conducted by one supervisor at each institution. The five major activities involved were weeding, harvesting, watering, seeding, and planting. Crops grown were exclusively vegetables and flowers with very few herbs. Horticultural activities were supervised by regular staff members (neither horticulturists nor occupational therapists) at the institutions for the intellectually disabled and by occupational therapists and general staffs at the psychiatric hospitals. Over 80% of these institutions reported that their primary objective was to have the clients enjoy growing plants and gain personal satisfaction from harvesting vegetables and flowers. In addition over 70% of the respondents indicated that goals included being refreshed, enhancing their vitality and developing good human relations (in the psychiatric hospitals) and social skills (in the institutions for the intellectually disabled). Over 80% of both institutions reported that clients enjoy harvesting, while over 70% of the institutions for the intellectually disabled reported enhancing of vitality and the same percentage of psychiatric hospitals confirmed that the clients gained pleasure in looking at the plants grow. Over 80% of both types of institutions referred to the horticultural activities as one of their therapies or training. Three main problems pointed out by these institutions were: 1) lack of a greenhouse where clients could work on rainy days, 2) difficulty in evaluating the effects and benefits of this activity, and 3) few supervisors in horticulture in these institutions.