First strike...

Stress from shipping...most the foliage dried and fell off. It struggled that hurdle...and put out more back budding and was developing nicely...

Strike two...

Then...the sunroom ended up with arctic air drafts from our harsh winter. That came down through gusts of harsh winds through our professional hood range... Killing off all my new tender branches and foliage.

Strike three...

Started to back bud and out out branches off the trunk, and I was pleased...then, a case of spider mites destroyed some of those newer branches.

Finally really taking a look at it. At all the dead branches I had yet to remove from the arctic air...hoping it would pull through when spring came and it pushed growth. Nothing...so today I removed all those dead branches...and am going to leave it rest...and store up energy from all those previous hits. It's back budding...and though it's leggy I hope that the new growth may hide that appearance later on...or...if not I will address it next spring. With proper pruning in hope to encourage back back budding.

It was hard...to see the full canopy die back. Though...in my minds eye...I wanted more than a traditional canopy top for this. So the Jin doesn't bother me overly. Seeing the new growth appearing on the trunk...and it developing into branches. Is my goal at this time. That and just trying to continue to keep it healthy.

This is a weeping form of bottlebrush Callistemon. My husband thought I should toss it out...but, where there is life...there is hope. Seeing back budding as well as refining secondary branches forming on the mature branches. I am just not ready to give up on such a fighter.