Thank you. I have read somewhere that a regular eucalyptus can be trimmed and kept small as a shrub. I am posting photos of my eucalyptus, which I bought at a nursery, which does not mark many of their trees with scientific or even a common name, so it was sold to me as "eucalyptus". Could you please identify this tree for me and advise if I can plant it in a shaded or partial shade area and trim it as a shrub? Also, can I top it off sometimes (cut the top) to prevent it from growing too large? Thank you.

My Eucalyptus:

http://img293.imageshack.us/img293/5561/north145.jpg
http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/978/north147.jpg

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:351395}}

I have read somewhere that a regular eucalyptus can be trimmed and kept small as a shrub.

No. Unless one is doing bonsai, there is no plant that enjoys and thrives in conditions where it is continually forced to be 5-10% smaller than it wants to be. Esp when flesh is cut and pathogens can invade.

Dan

Although it will likely generate some flak (seems like it does everytime I offer a differing opinion), I'm going to disagree.....again :-) Eucalyptus are often coppiced or pollarded to encourage shrub-like growth. It often happens naturally in colder climates where the plant experiences considerable winter dieback of the topgrowth. In extreme cases, eucalyptus can be treated as virtually a herbaceous perennial, dying back to the roots in winter and then producing rapid topgrowth in season. In a good hard winter here, eucalyptus will typically follow this pattern.

Coppicing or pollarding is a well-accepted practice with a lot of larger growing shrubs and trees. It has been practiced in Europe for centuries. And it doesn't necessarily create diseases issues or affect longevity. Catalpa, paulownia, black locust, hornbeams, cercis (redbud), certain maples, ash, oaks, willows, cotinus and eucalyptus can all be pollarded or coppiced routinely to maintain a smaller size or to enhance the foliage effect or eliminate flowering and seeding. And that's only a few of the suitable species.

Your little tree looks like a cider gum, Eucalyptus gunnii. While one of the hardier eucalypt species, it frequently does get killed back in a bad winter in zone 8. These are often seen as shrubs in my area for that reason. There is a quite mature one (large diameter trunk) planted in a nearby traffic circle that is maintained at around 6'. One of the common reasons for intentionally coppicing or pollarding this plant other than to maintain a specific size is to maintain the juvenile, perfoliate foliage. But it would be happiest in as much sun as possible.

Here is a link that might be useful: pollarding eucalyptus

Yup. That tree will be great when the diameter of the main trunk is 2' and the 17 stump sprouts on all sides grow everywhere and 6 go right into the building. It will be easy to prune 3x a year too.

But I agree with GG that some eucalypts get coppiced. That doesn't mean its appropriate for the typical HO in the typical landscape.

Dan

Thanks everyone, especially to Gardengal48, who's reply is very informative and thanks for identifying my plant, I very much appreciate that.

Coppicing Eucalyptus gunnii is very common in the UK where many of us do not have the space for a mature and fast growing tree. Apart from restricting the size of the plant it means that you will get the silvery rounded juvenile foliage rather than the longer adult foliage. A coppiced Euclyptus is not just a small version of the tree, it looks quite different.

Regarding coppicing per se, it is an ancient woodland management technique and coppiced stools can be hundreds of years old and still producing a crop of poles. Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire has a coppiced lime which is now 48 feet across and 2000 years old. (This is not a typo.)

Here is a link that might be useful: Coppicing Eucalyptus

Olives are coppiced as well.

And you can't walk around post-WWII Sacramento built environment without being able to swing a dead cat and hit a coppiced fruitless mulberry. But that doesn't make it a good practice for that plant, and coppicing may be a practice out of context and not germane to this particular plant in that particular location. That is: IMHO waaaaay too close to the structure and wrong tree, wrong place.

Context.

Dan