Tom,
I only have the one "Deshojo" and defoliated it last summer (about this time).
The display this year has been very poor, compared to how it was.
It is still fairly healthy, but I think, although the leaf size has reduced, it is still not a patch on what it was. I think this has been put back at least two years by the process. We had a particularly wet summer in the U.K. last year, and this did not help.
If you decide to do it, please only once and then ONLY if it is extremely healthy and you can monitor it well the rest of this year. Walters experience with them should be heeded perhaps.
Good luck,
Ian.