Black pine

I have had this small black pine for about 5 years now. In this time it has had quite a few different shapes and the crown got smaller and smaller. By choice of course. In the meantime the crown got nicely dense so I had to pluck all the old needles to let more sunlight reach the branches. This will on one hand promote new backbudding and on the other prevent branches from dying due to lack of sunlight.

Before plucking the needles.

How it looks now.

This is the tree before the first styling in 2011.

And a photo from autumn 2013 when it looked best so far.