Just a quick post detailing a quick revisit of an old Japanese Black Pine i have been growing for a long time.

The first drop branch always bothered me.
Best way to deal with a problem is to remove it.
and a very rough and ready re-wire

As you can see from the above images the re-visit consisted of removing the original key branch and changing the direction of the tree. The final result was not a tight final styling as the tree had been left to grow out the previous year and had many lanky shoots. There are plenty of inner back buds formed so after this years de-candling the foliage should be compacted a lot more and with any luck, i will be able to get a more finished outline from the second flush shoots.

Interestingly the first branch on the left was one of the first grafts i did back in the day and its success started a a bit of a grafting obsession which i may post about one of these days.