Doing better, producing larger trusses with more flowers. Look how long the shoots supporting them are - last year it grew like a weed.

Yes it did so I thought I should prune it after it flowers to get it more bushy. Unfortunately, the bambis visited it last night and half of the pompoms are missing this morning. They thought it should be pruned earlier, obviously.

Better to let it fill in on its own anyway.

Seems that fertilizing can produce the straight shoots - typical of nursery / growers.

The pom-poms don't look so pom-pom-ish if the form of branches is more full and dense.