Louisiana florists challenge licence to arrange

Cupid's bow is drawn in Louisiana, as it is everywhere else, and the flower industry is poised to do big business in the run up to St Valentine's Day. But only a select few are permitted by law to sell those bouquets of roses red and violets blue.

Louisiana is alone in the United States in requiring anyone who wants to be a florist to sit a difficult two-part examination to earn a licence. The pass rate is only 50 per cent and the judges are all florists.

Three would-be arrangers, with help from lawyers from the Institute for Justice in Washington, DC are suing the state to have the exam system overturned. Several previous attempts to challenge the law have been thwarted.

Among the frustrated florists is Shamille Peters, who has failed the exam five times. "You don't have to take any kind of test to get a gun in Louisiana," she points out. "But you can't put a flower in a vase and sell it unless the state says that it's OK." Washington lawyers lobbied disappointed applicants outside examination centres last year. They persuaded Ms Peters and two others to allow them to represent them in demanding that the state relax its grip on the trade. They will argue that exams, because they are judged by established florists, are protection in disguise.