Axios Detroit

May 22, 2025
🏃💨 Nearly Friday — one more day to go!
🥶 Today's weather: Chance of showers and a high in the mid-50s.
Today's newsletter is 845 words — a 3-minute read.
1 big thing: Rare plants grow here
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. It also uses 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 as low as $25 up to hundreds or thousands of dollars.
- 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 Palmstreet 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.
2. DIA's low ticket price


The $20 ticket price for the Detroit Institute of Arts is on the affordable side when compared to museums in other big cities.
Zoom in: Detroiters and other residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties get free admission to the DIA by showing their ID. The access comes in exchange for a property tax millage that's been in place since 2012 to fund the museum.
- General admission for adults outside the tri-county area is $20.
- Discounts are available for college students, older adults and those between 6–17. Children 5 and under get in free.
Context: The DIA's most recent price increase was last July, when general admission prices went from $18 to $20, Adam Pattison, the museum's director of visitor experience, tells Axios.
If you go: The museum's 88th Annual Detroit Public Schools Community District Student Art Exhibition is on display until Sunday.
3. The Grapevine: You heard it here
🏠 More than $300,000 has been spent on upgrades to the Detroit mayor's Manoogian Mansion since 2021, under Mike Duggan, but there's been no public disclosure of the donors. (Free Press)
🎶 Local ghettotech hip-hop group HiTech describes its origin story and rise in the music industry ahead of its Monday performance at Movement. (Metro Times)
🏈 The Lions were among nine teams at the NFL's spring meetings that joined the Philadelphia Eagles in blocking a proposal to ban the Eagles' controversial "tush push" play. (CBS Detroit)
🏗️ Stellantis will build a $388 million parts distribution hub in Van Buren Township, just north of Willow Run Airport, to consolidate several other Midwest facilities, the automaker announced yesterday. (Detroit News)
4. Things to do
🕺 Hear techno of the past, present and future at the Movement electronic music festival.
- Saturday and Sunday, 2pm-midnight; Monday, 2-11pm.
- General admission three-day passes are $365 and day passes are $206.
🖼️ Browse local artists' booths and grab food at the Kensington Art Fair in Milford.
- Free to attend. Saturday and Sunday, 10-6pm; Monday, 10-4pm.
🐉 Explore a forest of dragons at the Detroit Zoo.
- Starting Saturday and running through Sept. 7, 9:30am-5pm.
- Tickets are an extra $6 when buying zoo passes.
More things to do, including a scavenger hunt and bottomless mimosas
5. Tim Robinson goes Hollywood
Metro Detroit comedian Tim Robinson's new movie, "Friendship," is already showing in local theaters ahead of its wider theatrical release tomorrow.
Why it matters: The movie — a dark comedy/bromance flick that's already receiving critical praise — is Robinson's first leading role on the big screen.
💭 Joe's thought bubble: I'm hoping "Friendship" rejuvenates Hollywood's interest in R-rated comedies, which seem to have fallen off since the days of "The Hangover" and "Horrible Bosses."
Our picks:
👋 Joe is not a fan of bumper stickers in general, but the "tell your dog i said hi" sticker makes him chuckle every time.
🥶 Annalise recently became aware that the weather for the Mackinac Policy Conference is going to be … bad.
Edited by Chloe Gonzales.
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