How a rare plant business blossomed in Detroit
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A special philodendron in the Rare Plant Fairy warehouse. Photo: Annalise Frank/Axios
During the 2020 lockdown, Jocelyn Ho sold two of her plants online for a total of $1,000. Now she has a rare plant business with 25 employees.
Why it matters: Ho started Rare Plant Fairy (RPF) in her spare bedroom downtown during the pandemic, as many businesses shuttered.
- RPF's trajectory is a quintessential tale of how the pandemic changed us — bringing us chronically online, and driving us toward a desire for connection with nature in our homes.
State of play: Rare Plant Fairy sells exotic plants to avid customers across the world who crave unique leaf patterns, striped stems and vibrant colors.
- The company also clones, propagates and nurtures hundreds of thousands of plants in its lab, including the ultra-rare ghost orchid.
Zoom in: An expansive former manufacturing building in Islandview houses the 10,000-square-foot business and public showroom — though RPF sells most of its plants online.
The latest: The company sells on its website and the live-selling platform Palmstreet, which lets RPF show off plants on a livestream, sell directly and chat with shoppers. It combines customers' need for personal interaction with their desire to buy online, Ho tells Axios.
- "We've built a really big community of plant lovers," she says. "We have customers that know me and my sales team by name — they know our hobbies and personalities."
By the numbers: Rare Plant Fairy's prices range from $25 to thousands of dollars, per its website.
- Ho declined to share revenue but said RPF ships out more than 500 plants a week. It has filled more than 20,000 orders on the Palmstreet platform since fall 2023.
The intrigue: On a recent tour of Rare Plant Fairy's space, Annalise got in front of the camera to try out live-selling, and auctioned off a caramel marble philodendron for $55. Her takeaway? Fun, but she's not exactly a natural salesperson.
Flashback: Ho, at the time a recent immigrant to the U.S. and a former speech language pathologist, started selling on Facebook Marketplace, she tells Axios.
- "Because I was unemployed, in a new country … I just 100% hyper-focused on building this business," she says.
If you go: The showroom is open Fridays 3–6pm and Saturdays 10am–6pm, with a regular coffee pop-up.
Zoom out: The indoor plant market boomed during the pandemic and is expected to continue growing, per CBS.
- Ho says Detroit has an active plant scene — Midwesterners like a green indoor oasis in dreary winter months.
