Together with the call for a "green" society and the quest for well-being, the development of public action to prevent dependency make for a good context in which to revive an old idea: the therapeutic value of gardening, or gardening as therapy. What, then, do activists who advocate turning horticulture into a legitimate, professionally therapeutic practice, and to cultivate it within healthcare institutions, recommend? Proving the therapeutic virtues of gardening are the reality they must deal with, either choosing to highlight them or to avoid them. But they must also convince the medical profession, and their ambivalence is precisely what is at stake in that test. (C) 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.