Metro Atlanta gardeners and Pike Family Nurseries employees could soon have a reason to cheer.

If a sale of the Norcross-based garden chain is approved by a bankruptcy judge, all 15 metro Atlanta stores will get a new lease on life, remain under the Pike name and 400 Pike employees will keep their jobs. Currently, there are 500 to 700 employees, including those at garden centers and seasonal workers.

Phil Skinner/AJC (ENLARGE)

If the deal is approved, all outstanding gift cards, to the tune of about $800,000, will be honored by Pike's new owners.

PIKE'S FUTURE Pike's proposed new owner, Armstrong Garden Centers, will: • Keep the Pike name and operate 15 Atlanta stores. • Honor gift cards once the sale is finalized. • Retain Pike's 400 local employees. • Keep stores open through the sale process. • Continue to operate as an employee-owned, California-based nursery company. • More photos • More Business news • More Home & Garden news

There would be a happy ending for customers: all outstanding gift cards, to the tune of about $800,000, will be honored by Pike's new owners, Armstrong Garden Centers, according to the company's CEO, Mike Kunce.

"That's my commitment to the loyal customers of Pike," said Kunce, who is in Atlanta for the auction.

He cautions customers to call before trying to redeem the cards. With the approval of federal bankruptcy judge Mary Grace Diehl, the sale of Pike to Armstrong could be final as soon as Monday.

Pike Family Nurseries is no longer owned by the Pike family but is held by Roark Capital Group.

A Pike family member praised the sale to Armstrong.

"Michael is one of the best nursery business experts in the country," said Gary Pike, son of founder William "Pete" Pike. "Our family is very happy that Armstrong bought the business. They are a first-class operation."

Details of the auction of the 50-year-old chain were revealed in a federal bankruptcy hearing Thursday:

• Armstrong would take over all 15 metro Atlanta stores and the store in Charlotte, N.C., for $5.2 million. Founded in 1889, Armstrong has 34 stores in California and is 100 percent employee owned.

• Gary Pike will pay $490,000 for the plant inventory of two Pike wholesale stores. He also will lease back the Tucker wholesale store. The younger Pike, who with his wife, Lynn, owns a retail garden store near Lake Oconee called Gary's Garden Center, also runs an Atlanta wholesale business called Gary Pike's Plants.

He sells interior and exterior plants to florists and office buildings. He will use the new Tucker location to expand his business, but it will not be open to the public.

• The Geo. Schofield Co., based in Bridgewater, N.J., and founded in 1923, will buy all of the stone inventory of two Pike wholesale stores for $1.2 million. They will keep one of the stores open.

Schofield specializes in the sale of natural stones, and has seven existing stores nationwide, but none in Atlanta.

• Jacksonville, Fla.-based Skinner Nurseries will purchase the inventory and leases of two Pike stores for $1 million. Skinner was founded in 1972 and has 25 wholesale centers in the Southeast.

The bids total $7.9 million.

Pike filed for bankruptcy in November. Cash flow and inventory issues forced Pike to go into the auction process, said Rob Williamson, bankruptcy attorney for Pike.

He said that in the last half of 2007, sales decreased 50 to 60 percent because of Georgia's historic drought.

"As we sit here today, Georgia is still facing that drought," he said, which forced Pike to pursue bidders instead of trying to exit bankruptcy on its own.

— Researcher Nisa Asokan contributed to this report.