How does an arborvitae hold up in a storm?
Ice is the defining structural event — multi-stemmed and globe forms have no single dominant trunk, so an ice load splays the stems outward from the center, the bark tears at the union, and they stay splayed permanently. Tying multi-stem plants before winter or cabling the leaders on larger specimens is the standard preventative, and because the plants are small this is a cosmetic and replacement-cost problem rather than a property-damage one.
What pruning can and can't prevent
It is one of the few conifers that takes shearing well, but only within the green: cut back into the brown interior wood and it will not resprout, so a hedge sheared to the same line for a decade has no live foliage in reserve and simply cannot be reduced. Shear in late spring after the growth flush, again in midsummer if needed, and stop by late summer so new growth hardens before frost — never take a neglected overgrown row down hard in one pass.
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