Max Candy

[NBPCA]

Max Candy
1932 To 2005.

This will have to be a personal memory of Max by me.

I first met Max Candy in about 1973, when I was just 16 or so, when I joined the Western Suburbs Bonsai Club that was in Enfield NSW. He was an influential member of that club.
Max had been introduced to bonsai by a neighbour Nona Woods (Nona was a long time bonsai personality in Sydney and had started the WSBC) and his interest just stuck and did not wain even a bit till the last few years of his life when multiple tragedies took their toll. Maxs’ parents hated Nona from then on as she had infected him with bonsai.
Max had started work at a paper (Telegraph, Mirror etc I am not sure which) and he could photograph and write articles; although he was not prolific. He joined the family business, which was the manufacturing of mens and womens belts from leather and vinyl, and stayed connected till the business ran down many years later due to competition from overseas.
He raced Motor bikes as a young man. They would ride to the competition, put on their helmets and leathers, run the race, and then take off all the protective gear and ride home. It wasn’t compulsory back then and he didn’t want to look like a sissy.
He was a very creative and inquisitive man and loved Figs most of all. He even converted the factory where his family business ran from for many years and it was known in the 1980s as the Fig Factory. He even advertised in Bonsai Down Under, a magazine that ran from 1978 till 1988.
He experimented on Figs (favourite Port Jackson Fig and Ficus Eugenoides) to do with fertilizing, defoliation, repotting, directional cutting of roots to encourage fatter trunks, trunk fattening by other means, shaping aerial roots, bending branches, Lime Sulphur (quickly learned it killed figs stone dead very quickly when applied to freshly cut root system!), complete cutting off of root base and striking the whole trunk again as a big cutting, etc etc etc. He sort of carried on from where Leonard “Lenny” Webber stopped.
He also experimented with Elms, Maples, and Pines in various ways. Loved busting myths.
For example:- Everyone knows that you cannot grow Japanese Black Pines inside a house under Hydroponic lights and sitting in water. Well he set up the system and did it just for the heck of it and it worked fine. The roots of the pine grew round and round in the water and it looked fine the few times I saw it.
He had at least one article published by Bill Valavanis (International Bonsai) on a Trident Maple he grew and there may have been another on a fig he restyled.
He had a show class fig in the early days that he took home after a Bonsai show, chopped all but the back branch off and started again. He also, at a later stage or with a different fig, cut of the whole bonsai at ground level with a Hacksaw (It doesn’t clog the teeth) and just restruck it because the roots weren’t perfect.
He experimented with trunk fattening of trees and came up with
1. First he built a ceramic mould the shape of a Fig base and then allow the tree to grow into it.
2. He came up with the “Root Wrap “ method for Figs, Pines and Elms. viewtopic.php?f=104&t=2346&p=23955&hili ... rap#p23955
He was a long time member of the Illawarra Bonsai Club as well and it is a pity he will not be there this year.
He did the photography for the Vita and Dot Koreshoff book on Tropical Bonsai and is credited with it in the book.
He had a few tough years in a row near the end of his life. His Father (a very fit man who almost looked younger than Max)had died a few years before but in one short period his mother died, his brother died, one of his daughters died in a house fire and his granddaughter was burnt badly in the same fire. The fire accident was one week before the famous Sophie Delezio case and his granddaughter was moved out of intensive care to make way for the more injured Sophie.
His grandaughter eventually became interested in photography and his grandson became interested in Bonsai so look out for Jack. This perked Max up for a while but he died with Prostate Cancer in 2005.
One quirk of his was that after an illness in his 40s or 50s he hardly ever slept and instead would work on things; bonsai of course, at all hours. Also I can hardly ever remember him eating.
He was a good friend and very generous with information and tips.
If anyone has any corrections to make or any Max stories then please add them.
I will also add info as I remember more.

Grant Bowie

[Pup]

Thank you Grant for introducing me to the man that had such an influence on my growing of Ficus. I remember his ads in the Magazine.
Always said I would like to meet him. Now I will have to wait, till I go to the void.

Again thank you Cheers Pup

[NBPCA]

Thank you Grant for introducing me to the man that had such an influence on my growing of Ficus. I remember his ads in the Magazine.
Always said I would like to meet him. Now I will have to wait, till I go to the void.

Again thank you Cheers Pup

Welcome Pup.

His influence lives on and of course we have his tree here in the collection.

At his funeral the Fig was on his coffin.After the funeral the family asked me to help sell what was left of his collection and when I told them about the NBPCA they donated the Fig on the spot.

Leong Kwong helped with the disposal of the pots and trees that were left and they were very thankful to Leong as I was no longer in Sydney and Leong responded straightaway.

Grant

[Robert J. Baran]

Could someone please find me Max's birth or death date so I can set up a place for him in our Bonsai Book of Days project, http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Days/Days.html et al?

The same holds true for any other of our too often unsung teachers and influences, including Len Weber. Thank-you.

Robert J. Baran
Bonsai Researcher and Historian

[sreeve]

Hi Robert,
I believe Len Webber passed away on 23 Dec 1989, I am not 100% certain of his date of birth and will PM it to you if I can find it.

As per another post I made, I was hoping that either Grant Bowie or Ric would have some further information on Len Webber as he appears an unsung hero of early bonsai in Australia - like Max Candy.

Regards
Steve

[Grant Bowie]

Hi Robert,
I believe Len Webber passed away on 23 Dec 1989, I am not 100% certain of his date of birth and will PM it to you if I can find it.

As per another post I made, I was hoping that either Grant Bowie or Ric would have some further information on Len Webber as he appears an unsung hero of early bonsai in Australia - like Max Candy.

Regards
Steve

I have posted elsewhere about lenny Webber.

[Grant Bowie]

Could someone please find me Max's birth or death date so I can set up a place for him in our Bonsai Book of Days project, http://www.phoenixbonsai.com/Days/Days.html et al?

The same holds true for any other of our too often unsung teachers and influences, including Len Weber. Thank-you.

Robert J. Baran
Bonsai Researcher and Historian

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your interest.

I will check for exact dates for Max Candy,

Grant Bowie

[NBPCA]

Dates for Max are;

Born 31/8/1932 31st August 1932

Died 16/12/2005 16th December 2005

Grant

[Robert J. Baran]

Much thanks, Grant. I am drafting initial entries for Max and Len WebBer.

Robert

[NBPCA]

One very interesting fact about Max that I forgot to mention.

You could say that Maxs' heart was always in the right place.

But it wasn't!

He was one of those one in a million people whose internal organs were reversed; ie his heart was on the right, not the left.

Must have been confusing for the doctors hey!..

Grant

[leafshape80]

Hello I remember Max Candy well. I bought a lot of figs (Ficus rubiginosa) & Trident maples (Acer buergeranum) from him in the 1980's throught to 1999. I heard about him through Dorothy Koreshoff when I did her beginners course in 1989. I still have many of these trees which grown and developed since then. He came across to me as being a man who suffered much tragedy in his life but who expressed this through his art. You would not think he was a bonsai enthusiast when you look at him, but appearances can be decieving. Max was very innovative in his approach to growing and developing the trunks of his trees. I remember attending a workshop he ran at his factory in 1989, where he showed me a mould he used to wrap around the base of the trunk to develop the roots on a fig. He was full of helpful advice but not did not expect anything in return. I find out that he died a few years ago. Doreen Kelly of Cumberland Bonsai society told me he passed away though she was not sure of the exact circumstances. AsI met her at Bonsai environment nursery in 2009 here in Sydney. I only find out by reading Grant Bowie's recollections that it was in 2005 that he died at home from cancer. I shall miss him but i will remember him through his trees. Roger