I've used notching and guy wires (especially) successfully. Be careful when notching at the base of a conifer branch as it's easy to pull the whole branch off !Raymond wrote:.... was wondering what is the best method to bend some of these branches. They are old, and very brittle. I have raffia on standby but was wondering if there are other methods I could consider.
Guys wire bending is a multi-month activity - don't try to bend it all they way, all at once. Where I am, you'd have no trouble bending branches on a juniper this size - however I understand that in cold climates they get brittle more quickly.
The most successful (if slow) method is to find a greener shoot part way along the branch and train that to be the main branch. Then remove the old branch past this point. This also helps get taper in the branch itself.
Obviously you need to balance the loss of such large piece of growing material with reductions elsewhere on the plant so that the whole thing stays in balance.
That's what I would do. From what I have read 
junipers have a very slow metabolism. 
whomever gave it to you, would be pleased with its present development. Well done.
