I started Garden Spot Koi officially in 2005, an extension of my long time love of raising fish.  I started with tropical fish, and many years later began raising Japanese Koi.  It was a hobby that grew, and became Garden Spot Koi.  My goal is to offer the best possible Koi to the public at reasonable prices.  I import Koi from Japan along with Koi raised here at our family farm and my other business, Swan Island Dahlias of which I am a co-owner. Our company, Swan Island Dahlias, is America’s largest dahlia grower, and we have over 40 acres of dahlias blooming during the summer.  Flowers and fish, what a nice combination, and to that end, Garden Spot Koi is off and running.

Much of my fish keeping knowledge goes back to the tropical fish industry. I started a tropical fish retail business when I was in high school. Later I expanded the business while I was in college. After college I had planned on expanding the tropical fish business even further, but my parents were considering a large expansion of the dahlia business.  They asked me to consider helping manage the family farm when they purchased a competitors dahlia business and combined it with Swan Island Dahlias.  I accepted and managed the two businesses for a few years, but with the businesses being 40 miles apart it became too difficult to keep up. Thus I sold the tropical fish business to be able concentrate on the family operation of growing and marketing dahlias worldwide.

I have always had an interest in koi since seeing them in display gardens at theme parks or resorts. In 1990 I decided to build my first koi pond. It was only about 1500 gallons but it seemed big at the time. It wasn’t long before there was a second pond and then came spawning and raising the fry.  Many ponds and koi later I began selling my locally raised koi to garden centers and koi retailers.

In 2003 I took my first buying trip to Japan to hand select some outstanding koi to use as breeders. In 2004 I decided to start importing and selling Japanese Koi. In 2005 we expanded to selling on eBay. The demand was way beyond my expectations, now in 2006 I started up this website to better serve my customers.

Garden Spot Koi

P.O. Box 700

995 NW 22nd Ave.

Canby, OR. 97013