Scotts Miracle-Gro CEO Jim Hagedorn bluntly laid out his take on the company's cannabis-growing business during a curse-laden rant on a conference call.

He said his frustration was about disappointing financial expectations for Hawthorne Gardening, Scotts' cannabis subsidiary, which is in the process of acquiring Sunlight Supply. Hawthorne isn't going to meet Scotts' internal targets for growth for the foreseeable future, though Hagedorn didn't disclose how far short of the target the unit was now.

"Let me kind of tell you, like, the journey a little bit for me, and it's real time," he told analysts on Tuesday's call. "Hawthorne's on their own long-term plan and they're clearly off their first year."

Then Hagedorn let loose, saying Hawthorne was not showing him "like, where you're going."

"And, dude, those bastards are gun-shy as s--- right now, OK," Hagedorn told analysts on the call. "I'm just telling you real-time, living my life. What do you expect they're going to throw back at us? So they throw these numbers back at us, and I was like, what the hell?"