Hi Kate! Thank you for your info. I am almost absolutely certain I would prefer it for its foliage rather than for its shade producing potential. I felt very sad cutting down an old cedar in my yard to get some much needed sun (with resulting wood, enough to last two decades, I think!). While the majority of my living quarters seem to have dungeon-like qualities, I do have a dedicated room for plants which includes lighting, a fan and humidifier. The phrase "formative pruning" intimidates me a bit as I suppose I would consider myself a clueless hacker, so when you say, prune to an outfacing branchlet, I don't really know what that means. Maybe prune the outer branches?
I thought I would keep it in a container, at least for this season, so I could bring it in this winter. I do have a rather uninteresting plastic pot that might be about 15 gallons that I could transfer it to sometime next year if need be. Or, if I finally figure out just the right spot for it in my yard, I'll put it out, in ground, so it can terrorize me!
That sounds about right, doncha think? Let it get its bearings? Looking at the picture though I'm pretty sure it has shrub potential but it'll never be a tree, right? I just don't "see" a branch that would grow upright even if I cut all the branches off but one. And it's OK with me if it is a shrub or bush, I'm just much more familiar with colossal trees having come from SoCal myself.
