Fukinaoshi - Wax Myrtle Style

In my mack yard I have a huge Wax Myrtle.  These evergreen shrubs are very common in southeast Texas.    I've been battling with the idea that I need to do something with it.  It was leaning against my fence, and with every gust of wind, slowly destroying it.  So after some thought, I went to Fukinaoshi town on it.  For those that don't know, Fukinaoshi is the Japanese term to "re-do."  I cut this shrub back hard with the exception of one branch which I've been training to grow horizontal for about a year.

Wax Myrtle cut back hard

With the brown wood back ground the post-fukinaoshi shrub is hardly visible.  If you look to the left of the picture you can see the branch that's being trained.  You might want to also notice the off shoots which I'm training as well.

Wax Myrtle Japanese Garden Tree

To the right is what I hope to create.  It shouldn't be a huge leap seeing as how these shrubs are fast growers.  As each new sprout shoots up, I'll clip them in just the right spot creating more and more off shoots.  I hope that within a year, this shrub has a mature interesting look.

Here is the Wax Myrtle branch I've been training for almost a year.  You can't see the other end which has the thick foliage but what you can see are the two guide wire ropes, labeled 1.  These have been in place since last summer.  The two small shoots labeled 2 have just recently been tied back. These should provide some unique balance to the large dominate horizontal branch.  I used a couple pieces of garden twine to gently pull them down.