Annoy me tree

Do you have any parts of your garden that are just a little bit annoying? I'm not talking about a planting bed that you want to redo, or an ugly shrub or tree you want to remove -- those are major things. I'm talking about something that is probably quite minor, invisible to anybody else, but bugs the heck out of you every time you see it.

I've got one of those (at least one). This twisted white pine (Pinus strobus 'Torulosa') bothers me whenever I look at it.

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The tree itself I love! The happy, curly needles are so fun and interesting:

The problem I have is this branch:

Which branch? Here's a closer look:

Still don't see it? Okay, what about if I do this:

Do you see it now? On the left there's a branch that's just too big for the rest of the tree.

I planted this in 2007 I think, but I didn't notice the branch until a couple of years later.

Every year since then I look at this and wonder what to do about it. How do I get the tree back into shape?

There are three options. The first is to do nothing. This one is easy, but it doesn't solve my problem.

The second option is to cut that entire branch off. This may be the best long-term option, and in a few more years it may be the obvious choice because I may want all of the lowest branches removed.

All of these small lower branches will eventually
be removed. They haven't really gotten any larger
since the tree was planted. The big branch in question
is facing away from the camera in this shot.

For now though, it seems extreme so I'm not seriously considering it.

The final option, and one that didn't become obvious to me until I started studying these photos, is to prune the branch, getting the tree back into balance:

If I cut about where the red line is, I'll end up with this:

That actually looks quite good to me, and I think it's the option I'll choose. I want to study this from other angles too, as although it may look good in this photo, seeing it from the left may reveal a problem with this option. I'll consider it for a few more weeks before I do anything -- there's no real hurry.

Or maybe there is, as this tree is growing much faster than my pre-purchase research indicated it would:

(In fact it may eventually get too large for this area, and need to be removed. That's 10 years or more in the future though, so I'm not worrying about that yet.)

Still, I love this tree, and don't want to do anything that would harm it.

I certainly don't want to make it even more annoying to me!


What do you think?

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