Is my eastern red cedar safe in a storm?
One of the better conifers under Indiana ice — tough flexible wood on a narrow dense crown over a deep root system, so it bends and sheds load instead of snapping at the trunk. The exception is multi-stemmed specimens that forked low: ice splays the stems outward, the union tears, and once splayed the tree never closes back up.
What pruning can and can't prevent
Junipers will not resprout from old bare wood, so any cut made past the green foliage leaves a dead stub permanently — shearing a red cedar is a one-way decision and topping one to reduce height never recovers. Work it in late winter to early spring before growth pushes, and reduce by cutting back to a live lateral inside the green rather than heading the whole outline.
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