This study attempted to examine the effects of horticultural activities based on various techniques on care class children’s emotional intelligence and peer competence and to analyze the correlation between the two factors. For this study, an experiment was conducted with 12 care class students who were 1 st ～2 nd graders at P Elementary School in D Metropolitan City. The horticultural activities consisted of plant growing, horticultural arts, and flower arrangement, and each activity was applied five times in a repeated pattern. After the horticultural activities, the children’s mean emotional intelligence was improved significantly from 26.7±6.7 to 30.8±6.9 (P=.007). In particular, empathy and emotion regulation ability showed a remarkable improvement. Peer competence was also improved by 3.9 points from 47.9±13.7 to 51.8±9.3 after the horticultural activities, but the difference was not significant (P=.255). However, a correlation was not observed between the two factors.