I recently had a nursery plant an E gunnii (about a month ago) in my garden located in the Cotswolds. I know it can get very large, but want to keep it at not over 15 feet; it is perhaps 12-13 feet now.

Can anyone advise when and how much to prune it each year to keep it small and produce juvenile folliage? Please be as specific as possible as I am an amateur.

Also, does it need water in the winter?

With thanks for any assistance.

I saw your post, but guessed nobody really knew the answer to your very specific query. My very amateur take on it would be:

Eucalyptus apparently need to be planted young to enable them to develop stabilising roots. Don't know how young is young. You would need to check this info, can't remember where I read it.

They are pretty tough and have had to endure starvation and drought in my garden without dying.

They grow really fast and quickly become a nuisance if not dealt with by severe pruning.

If it's really important to have a tree of a certain height why not get one that only grows to that height?

They can be cut back more or less to the ground and respond by producing a shock of young foliage.

My hunch is that if you hacked it off at ten feet or so in spring and fed it well then you would get a lollipop of juvenile foliage by autumn. Don't know if it would put up with this every year without complaint and it would probably look pretty dreadful until the new shoots were fairly well advanced. Depends how much that bothers you. If you didn't fancy the sawn-off look you could prune it back to a neat lollipop framework in late winter. It might start sending out shoots all along the lower trunk and these would have to be removed during spring and summer to maintain a "standard" look.

I certainly don't water my potted E gunni in the winter, so I doubt if yours would need it either.

They are easily & cheaply grown from seed so can easily be replaced if things go wrong.

I don't think it is going to be viable long-term kept at a height of 15" with mainly juvenile foliage. I think you will get fed up with pruning and ultimately it will be hard to keep it a good shape and with young foliage. I think that 5 years down the line you may want to remove it, anyway.

So it would not matter much if it was staked loosely or rigidly at this point.

All in all, I wouldn't worry much about rights and wrongs, just do what seems sensible.

It depends a bit on your attitude to gardening. I'm a bit gung-ho and rely on massed planting for effect rather than single perfect specimens. I don't mind things being temporary, either. However, your sister may be more of a perfectionist and like to have things "just so".

An established Eucalyptus shouldn't need watering. But give extra water during hot dry weather in the first year. Note that Eucalyptus do use a lot of water but they survive dry conditions by having an extensive efficient root system, and this may dry out the rest of your garden.

The eucalyptus flowers were a pleasant surprise as well as the buds that have provided me with endless possibilities for my art classes providing year long leaf and pod availability and strong distinctive scent for sensory classes too.