{"id":478372,"date":"2022-07-27T15:52:14","date_gmt":"2022-07-27T12:52:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/im-the-rare-plant-fairy-i-sell-exotic-plants-to-customers-worldwide\/"},"modified":"2022-07-27T15:52:14","modified_gmt":"2022-07-27T12:52:14","slug":"im-the-rare-plant-fairy-i-sell-exotic-plants-to-customers-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/im-the-rare-plant-fairy-i-sell-exotic-plants-to-customers-worldwide\/","title":{"rendered":"#I&#8217;m the Rare Plant Fairy. I sell exotic plants to customers worldwide."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a23e92a70675\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a23e92a70675\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-1'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/im-the-rare-plant-fairy-i-sell-exotic-plants-to-customers-worldwide\/#%E2%80%9CIm_the_Rare_Plant_Fairy_I_sell_exotic_plants_to_customers_worldwide%E2%80%9D\" >&#8220;I&#8217;m the Rare Plant Fairy. I sell exotic plants to customers worldwide.&#8221;<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h1><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"%E2%80%9CIm_the_Rare_Plant_Fairy_I_sell_exotic_plants_to_customers_worldwide%E2%80%9D\"><\/span>&#8220;I&#8217;m the Rare Plant Fairy. I sell exotic plants to customers worldwide.&#8221;<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h1>\n<div>\n                            Jocelyn Ho started selling rare plants during the pandemic. Now, business is budding. \u201cWe have our \u2018rare plant drops\u2019 every Friday, which our customers know to set their alarms for.\u201d\n                        <\/div>\n<div>\n                                                                        <em>Jocelyn Ho, also known as the Rare Plant Fairy, started selling plants during the COVID-19 pandemic out of her spare bedroom in Detroit. Now, Ho and a team of employees operate the business out of two locations, with hopes of expanding across Canada. The Rare Plant Fairy offers more than 100 species of the world\u2019s rarest exotic plants, with some starting at $35 and others priced well into the thousands. This is her story.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>\u2014As told to Tara De Boer<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I love everything about life <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a>. I studied birds, I had aquariums, I did reef research with the University of Toronto. But I never thought I\u2019d be interested in plants to this extent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I moved to Toronto at age two from my birthplace of Hong Kong. Growing up in Ajax, I would spend all my spare time in my yard, hunting for four leaf clovers for hours on end. I even painted a small fir tree on the front lawn with my father in 1990. The last time I drove by, it was still there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While I always had houseplants as a kid (simple and low-value plants such as African Violets), my collection really blew up right before COVID-19. Being stuck at home, I had all this time to start collecting rare specimens. If I couldn\u2019t go out, then I could bring nature in. The more I learned about plants, the more fascinated I became.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I had so many plants in the house that my husband started to complain about the space they were taking up, and the cost. To prove that it was an investment, I made some cuttings of my plants\u2014a Monstera Deliciosa Thai Constellation and Philodendron Pink Princess\u2014and sold them for $1000.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1238381\" style=\"width: 3010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1238381 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image_6483441-2.jpg\" alt=\"The Philodendron Pink Princess.\" width=\"3000\" height=\"3000\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Philodendron Pink Princess.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That was the seed money for the whole business. To this day we have not taken a single loan. I\u2019m now known for the Monstera Deliciosa Thai Constellation plant, which we grow thousands of and sell over a hundred every week.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When I started the business, I went solely under my personal name, Jocelyn Ho. Unfortunately, it wasn\u2019t easy as a Chinese business owner to start out and sell through my own name. It can be difficult as a female and minority entrepreneur.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I would get a lot of questions, like the kinds of questions you would ask if you suspected a scammer. <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Where do you live? Can you send photos with your hand in them?<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> I would do it, but it got tiring after a while. I needed an alias name, something memorable. Since people would send me their plant \u201cwishlist\u201d and I would grant them these plants, the Rare Plant Fairy seemed to fit the bill.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After getting my first degree in botany and biology from the University of Toronto, I jumped around, career-wise. I had a stint at a major fashion house. I did photography. I was a teacher, and then became a speech language pathologist after getting my masters degree in Hong Kong. This all sounds very random, but I\u2019ve managed to incorporate the skills I\u2019ve learned from all these different industries and pour that into this business.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1238382\" style=\"width: 1450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1238382 lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image_6483441-3.jpg\" alt=\"The Rare Plant Fairy headquarters in Detroit, Michigan.\" width=\"1440\" height=\"1080\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Rare Plant Fairy headquarters in Detroit, Michigan.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sustainability completely drives our business decisions. Our nursery is 100 per cent powered by renewable energy, and our shipments are now carbon neutral. We\u2019ve partnered with Shopify to help calculate the carbon-emitted emissions from our shipping costs and then put that money into funding programs to capture and sequester the carbon.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many of my plants are propagated and grown in Detroit, while some of the initial mother plants are acquired from places like Thailand, Indonesia, and South America. We either make cuttings or grow plants from the seeds we make to propagate. I also send my mother plants to our partner lab in Thailand to duplicate them, and we are in the process of building another lab in Detroit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I am currently cultivating my own rare, exclusive plants. By hybridizing two plants together I can guess what the plant babies will look like, but won\u2019t know until I grow them out. If it turns into something special, I get to breed the next generation and name that plant. I have a few of these plants that will be exclusively available by the end of the year, or by 2023.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1238380\" style=\"width: 3010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-sizes=\"auto\" class=\"wp-image-1238380 size-full lazyload\" src=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image_6483441.jpg\" alt=\"The Monstera Deliciosa Thai Constellation.\" width=\"3000\" height=\"3000\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Monstera Deliciosa Thai Constellation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even before COVID-19, the trend of plant-keeping was on the up-tick, but the pandemic definitely helped things along. People were stuck in their homes and wanted something to beautify their spaces with.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For plant enthusiasts, I suggest starting with something more common that you can get for about $10, to learn what your habits are. Some people tend to overwater or underwater their plants. Some people will love their plants to death. Most importantly is consistency in the amount of care you give to a plant. I would say when you\u2019re just starting off, practice with a more common variety, and then make plant care part of your routine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We have our \u2018rare plant drops\u2019 every Friday at 7 pm EST, which our customers now know to set their alarms for. We mainly sell online and currently supply to over 100 shops in the United States and to two in Canada. We hope to grow our business more in Canada\u2014it would be the dream to go back to Toronto and open up a shop there.<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async defer crossorigin=\"anonymous\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/society\/im-the-rare-plant-fairy-i-sell-exotic-plants-to-customers-worldwide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m the Rare Plant Fairy. I sell exotic plants to customers worldwide.&#8221; Jocelyn Ho started selling rare plants during the pandemic. Now, business is budding. \u201cWe have our \u2018rare plant drops\u2019 every Friday, which our customers know to set their alarms for.\u201d Jocelyn Ho, also known as the Rare Plant Fairy, started selling plants during&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":478373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.macleans.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/rareplants_jocelyn-766x431.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[77891,131776,78928,71083,76751],"class_list":["post-478372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-e-commerce","tag-horticulture","tag-plants","tag-small-business","tag-sustainability"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=478372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/478372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=478372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=478372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=478372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}