DETROIT (WXYZ) — A Detroit business born in the middle of the pandemic is now celebrating five years of success with an expanded footprint and a growing collection of rare plants.
Watch Christiana Ford's video report:
Rare Plant Fairy, known for its exotic and hard-to-find greenery, has transformed from a bedroom operation to an 11,000-square-foot commercial nursery on Detroit's east side. From ghost orchids to anthuriums, it is beyond the average plant shop.
Jocelyn Ho, owner and CEO of The Rare Plant Fairy, showed us around the new expanded space on Tuesday.
Web extra: Rare Plant Fairy walkthrough
One plant, the Monstera hurricane, looked like it had braids on its leaves.
The pink variegated Begonia Maculata was a showstopper with its color and polka dot spots.
"A year or two ago, people thought this plant did not exist because it was so rare," said Ho.
There's no shortage of plants one could consider "limited edition". Rare Plant Fairy has 500 different exotic and tropical species.
Their growing team was bustling around the space, conducting live sales, cleaning plants and creating content for their online site.
"Being able to control our own destiny and be able to grow from the very beginning really sets us apart and really allows us to be Rare Plant Fairy, allows us to have the rarest collections around," Ho said.
Web extra: Rare Plant Fairy owner speaks with 7 News Detroit
What is now a thriving business began with much humbler beginnings in Ho's 8-by-10-square-foot apartment bedroom during the pandemic, where she sold a plant for a thousand dollars.
PREVIOUS REPORT: Jocelyn Ho is The Rare Plant Fairy
"I didn't start off with a business plan or a goal to make x amount of money. I just really wanted to share my plants," Ho said.
The five-year milestone is significant for the business owner. "It is a huge milestone because most businesses do not pass the 5-year mark, so it feels like I've reached like first base. I'm safe," Ho said.
Each year has seen watered seeds flowering into a booming business with an international reach.
"Buyers come from all over, our biggest states are the most populated states like California, Florida, Texas," Ho said. "We've shipped plants to Europe, to Thailand, to Hong Kong, even crazier to think about Singapore as well."
The business continues to expand in multiple ways with new growing, office, and lab space.
"We've been growing every year in terms of revenue, in terms of head count, and also physical space," Ho said.
The biggest flex of their latest expansion is a cutting-edge plant tissue culture lab, which is one of the only of its kind in Michigan.
PREVIOUS REPORT: This rare plant shop in Detroit is working to clone the famous & endangered 'ghost orchid'
Last year, the shop made headlines for beginning the process of cloning the rare ghost orchid, a plant native to the Everglades that is endangered largely due to poaching.
Ho reports that the ghost orchids are growing well and will soon move on to the next phase.
"Before we were focused on making more, but now we need to make them bigger," she said.
Five years in, Rare Plant Fairy is blossoming with its own community of plant enthusiasts the team hopes to keep serving for years to come.
"I would still want to be relevant and still want to push the envelope further," Ho said.
——————————————
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
