Strong pre-Christmas sales of National Garden gift vouchers and the new gift card will coax more customers into garden centres and nurseries in coming months, says the HTA.
Sales of the vouchers, which are celebrating 50 years on the market this year, went up 12% for the last quarter of 2011. In addition, the HTA has reported £100,000 in gift card sales during the first two months of the pilot scheme's launch.

The cards, currently on sale in Sainsbury's and WHSmith's, can be redeemed in hundreds of HTA member garden retail outlets across the UK.

Similarly buoyant trading is reflected across HTA garden retail member businesses, with many reporting double digit growth over the busy Christmas trading period. Garden gifts, houseplants, decorations, lights and trees performed particularly well.

Andrew Maxted, the HTA director of marketing and communications, said: "With strong sales of national garden gift vouchers and the new garden gift card we can expect significant extra footfall and spend in HTA member outlets in the coming months as consumers spend their gift vouchers and cards.

"The HTA garden gift card has got off to a flying start, and with sales peaking at the same time as those of National Garden gift vouchers we are attracting new customers into the market. We are seeing a healthy number of enquiries into the garden gift card website which we anticipate will grow as we increase the number of outlets that they are available in during the run up to Mother's Day."