Pinus Elliottii Hem#2 - First wiring

Spring is here, the slash pine are pulling new candles and this little guy, although being 2 weeks late compared to the other slash pines I have, finally decided to pull new growth all over the place.

This pine was originally from a friend's collection and I got custody of it so to speak.

I've left it alone so far and have been looking at a way to approach it.

The original owner was going for a windswept style, but got stuck on the two opposing

branches which made the design he had in mind non-feasible.

I was stuck in this line of thinking initially ( ie forcing a windswept style into it ) but managed to get

out of that line of thinking and saw some possibility with an informal upright style. 

So that's the first styling towards creating that informal upright style.

The tree still needs lots of free growth and needs to be repotted in a bigger container, but 

for now I'm going to let it grow freely for say 2~4 growth cycles (roughtly 1~2 years) before repotting it.

Slash pine (pinus elliottii) before styling

That opposite branch is one of the main issues. I can't remove it right now
but its not in the best location either.

Wired the section I wanted to reposition

Et voila! Already much better :)

Top view

There was lots of leggy growth with bud located
on the extreme ends of the branches. Not really ideal for creating ramification.

I decided twist and compact the branches to bring
them closer to the main trunk. 

Top view after the branches have been wired too.

I was left with this lil problem guy.

Same store as for the apical branches :
long leggy growth, no bud closer to the trunk

I decided to go for the same technique as above, give the illlusion
that the branch is shorter and closer to the trunk by twisting the
branches and bringing compacting them closer to the trunk

I decided not to wire all the branches on this one. I'm still not sure
if I'm going to keep it of now in the long term so I wired only the major branches
with some potential to be retained later on.

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Overall I'm satisfied with the end product at this time.
There are lots of bad and unwanted structures that I should have removed, but I'm leaving this for next year.
There are several leggy growth at the base of the trunk that won't be used later one, but I'd like to use them as sacrificial branches to give more girth to the base.

Slash pine (pinus elliottii) before styling

Slash pine (pinus elliottii) after styling