Keeping garden centres and nurseries shut while allowing supermarkets and DIY stores to open was “unfair”, she added. Her plea follows warnings that nurseries could be forced to dump around 200 million unsold plants.

And a poll yesterday found more than half (56 percent of voters) wanted garden centres to reopen immediately.

In contrast, just one in four (26 percent) of the 1,518 people questioned by Deltapoll wanted cafes to reopen now.

The numbers backing restaurants and pubs reopening were 21 percent and 16 percent respectively.

Miss Villiers said “many garden centres would find it easier to comply with social distancing than other shops because of their larger footprint, much of it outdoors”.

She said the nation had “risen to the challenge” to protect the vulnerable but “that commitment will not be diluted if the Government were to throw a lifeline to garden centres and nurseries.”

Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 Committee of Tory backbenchers, said “inconsistencies should be tackled”.

He said: “For example, why are supermarkets allowed to sell flowers while flower stalls such as the one in Altrincham Market in my constituency cannot?”

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