Since late 2020 Rare Plant Fairy has been growing and propagating a wide array of rare and unusual foliage plants with a focus on sustainability. Plant collecting started as a soothing hobby for our company’s founder, Jocelyn Ho. It tapped into her penchant for interpreting non-verbal cues in children with special needs and her love of biological sciences. Aside from a masters degree in speech-language pathology, she also holds a bachelor’s degree in biology and botany from the University of Toronto. The company has grown to 13 talented employees in 3 years and continues to see increased market share. In the company’s quest to offer the best rare tropical plants on the market, we built our own in-house tissue culture lab in Detroit - RPF Labs.

RPF Labs produces plantlets from mother plants and new hybrids that are made in the Rare Plant Fairy nursery. We also dedicate a portion of our resources to R&D in the cloning of endangered plants such as the ghost orchid. We are a young company and our lab team is small but mighty. This small batch approach allows us to completely control the quality of our plants and also the varieties that we can offer. Vertical integration helps ensure that plants entering the collector market are ethically sourced and allows for a fresh influx of rare plant tissue cultures not found in export markets.

Tissue culture is not just good for business, it’s also really cool science! We are partnered with several non-profits in Detroit to teach and inspire the youth in our community to pursue a career in STEM. We host field trips and provide financial support for related programs.