Forget for a minute that the flower industry sells beauty and fragrance. Underneath its elegance is a business as cutthroat as Game of Thrones with mulch.
Take the case of the Candy Bouquet, a pretty, magenta-and-yellow flower that resembles a petunia. It was developed by a German grower, Westhoff Vertriebsgesellschaft, that says it was on the verge of selling the variety to Home Depot when a rival swooped in, copied the plant and spread lies about Westhoff in order to win the business of the world's largest home-improvement chain.
The allegations are contained in a May 4 lawsuit that both reveals the dark side of the garden supply industry and the growing importance of big retailers like Home Depot, Lowe's and Wal-Mart Stores to growers. Consumers are increasingly migrating there from small mom-and-pop greenhouses, raising the stakes — as it were — for growers to win space on their shelves.
To read the rest of the story, please go to: Bloomberg