Out of all the cedars I liked brevifolia the most and deodora the least. The main reasons are it's a naturally droopy variety and keeping neat pads with it is difficult. It has bigger needles than atlantica & brevifolia and it doesn't have the neat clustered growth the others display. I'll be interested to see if you can tame the floppy growth better than I fared.
As
@cbroad has said they can respond badly initially to root work and you really get anxious if it drops all it's needles. The best way to avoid this is always work the roots as the branch tips start to brighten up and extend. What about jinning the straight top and using the first branch as your main trunk line? You know that straight section up there will always draw your eye to it don't you? The first branch can be bent up and either use thick wire n guys to get some great movement or, if it's immovable, cut back again to a side branch and wire that.
