Development of a privet

I got this tree last summer. It was raw material then. Here it is after the first styling in august 2008




This is how it looked a few days ago, only one growing season later. Ramification has increased a lot. I have cut back the branches 4-5 times this summer. It grows like crazy.



In order to better see the branch structure I decided to pluck off all the leaves. Ligustrum is a semi decidious tree and if it becomes cold enough it looses all the leaves by it self. I placed the tree inside in a frost free room a few days ago so it will not happen by itself. It had been exposed to night temps down to - 5 celsius for a few weeks and showed no signs of dropping the leaves.
It is time consuming to pluck off all the leaves. I have to take one at a time, it's not like a pine where you can pluck many needles at the same time.
When I'm done plucking the leaves I'll cut back the branches again and wire the tree.