Dale Cochoy @ Wild Things Bonsai Studio selling off bonsai collection

Folks,
Some of you might know already, but most not, and some won't care, but almost all of my entire bonsai collection was bought by Kurtis Smith of THE FLOWER MARKET in Monroe, Michigan. This was the remainder, about 110 bonsai, of my collection I've worked on for 34 years.
Those that live in Michigan have seen him selling bonsai at all the shows. His large operation sells bonsai, nursery plants, Water Gardens install and maint., and a florist service.
If you've seen anything in my collection pictures of trees or viewing stones/suiseki that you liked please contact Kurtis at 734-269-2660 or http://www.Dundeeflowers.com/


As most of my friends know I have sold the vast majority of my bonsai collection, viewing stones/suiseki and Japanese/Chinese pottery stock. The new owner came to load it all up on Monday, September 24, 2012. They brought a 26 ft. truck which contained several rolling racks that held most of the small/medium trees and a lot of the smaller pots.Those filled about 1/3 of the truck. The remaining 2/3rds of the truck was filled with large trees and pottery. We were not able to get it all in the truck. The new owner will have to come back with a van for some remaining large trees and large pots, a pnumatic cart and a few other items. I hope he can get it all in the van! It took 5 of us about 4 hours for this first truck loading.

I will still be Producing my hand-made 'Yakimono no Kokoro' Bonsai pottery and also still selling a great line of power wood carving tools for bonsai.

D.

Sir,if I may ask:
Why did you sell your whole collection?

I don't know why, but this makes me sad...

Do you have any photos posted anywhere that show your collection? The buyer doesn't post photos of individual trees on their site, would be nice to wind up with one of your trees...
Thanks
Judy

Judy, there are NUMEROUS photos of my collection and individual trees that I posted on my Facebook page ( Dale Cochoy) over the 2-3 months the collection has been for sale in it's entirety.
Look under the album " Entire Bonsai Collection For sale", there are many more than shown here.
Too bad you, and others, never showed up over the last 2-3 years that I've been trying to sell them individually.
Now they are gone and will probably cost more!?
The new owner is probably still sorting everything out.

Dale Cochoy wrote:Judy, there are NUMEROUS photos of my collection and individual trees that I posted on my Facebook page ( Dale Cochoy) over the 2-3 months the collection has been for sale in it's entirety.
Look under the album " Entire Bonsai Collection For sale", there are many more than shown here.
Too bad you, and others, never showed up over the last 2-3 years that I've been trying to sell them individually.

Dale,

Honestly, I've never heard you were selling until now too. Nice collection and a shame you had to let them go (for what ever reason).

Yes, that is an opportunity lost...
Lovely garden and looks like some wonderful trees inhabited it. What will you do with all that room!!?? And all that time! It must be in some ways a very freeing feeling....

Judy,
I've already removed more than 1/2 the benches and we plan to landscape nicer next year a bit.
The ones I kept I made higher since no more big trees.
TIME, that was part of the problem, with doing pottery I could not keep up with pruning, styling and repotting.
Also, can't handle the 2-3 man trees anymore. Since my accident in the spring I had to take another look at the smartness of having a bunch of big trees.
I kept 15 trees with some meaning or that I just wanted to finish. By next year end there will probably be 30. I'm going to REALLY TRY to stay below 30 small/med size trees. No more 250 that I had a couple years ago before I started selling single trees to 425 that I had at one time quite a while back.
No more retail trees, I got rid of all that a few years ago. In fact I even sold established demo tree stock I was saving for any programs, but, no programs so no demos! trees gone! I really should have written a book or pulled weeds in Japan for a couple months
I did not HAVE TO sell, I just decided to do it while I could realize something for my work over the years and do it before I HAD TO or stuck my wife with it who would get nothing! It worked out great. I gave the buyer a great deal and I got money in a lump sum for some other things I wanted more now.

D.

Dale Cochoy wrote:Judy,
I'm going to REALLY TRY to stay below 30 small/med size trees.

D.

Let me know how that works out for you....
(I can't count how many times I've said that to myself... and my husband....)

when a hobby becomes a life consuming business it ceases to give the satisfaction of the early days - i can totally see and understand your choice - and 15-30 loved and appreciated trees are priceless compared with 100-400+ trees that have become objects. I loved fishing with a passion until it filled every minute of my working life, now my trees are my escape and my pleasure. what you have done is the final spoke in the wheel of bonsai - less is far more.

hope you enjoy the breath of fresh air. best wishes,

Marcus

I bet Dale that you'll enjoy the fewer trees so much more now! And I'm with Judy, never heard you were selling off your collection. But I'm glad you got a good deal and am happy!