It may back bud but I try to leave a couple leaves on each main stem. I summer mine outside in full sun. You could try to propagate a cutting or three.

tj

I would move the plant outdoors into open or dappled shade for a month (to increase vitality) then cut it back hard (if you're sure you want to) AND repot it. A repot is more involved than potting up because it includes bare-rooting, root pruning, and a change of grow medium, but a repot removes all limitations imposed by root congestion (being root bound). Whereas, potting up ensures the limitations due to root congestion remain an ongoing limitation until someone actually get their hands inside the root/soil mass to correct congestion and problem roots. It could easily do with a reduction in the number of stems (perhaps to 3 or 5 stems of varying thickness) as well.

I agree with the others in that it's an attractive plant, and you can force growth low on the stems by pruning judiciously, increasing light and air movement, and fertilizing at luxury levels. Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 would be my 'go to' choice for all my houseplants except any occasional outliers like hibiscus, which are hogs when it comes to potassium consumption, and require far less phosphorous than the average plant.

I can provide additional guidance if you decide to act on these suggestions or have questions.

Al

I already moved the plant outdoors several days ago, its on a covered porch where it gets some morning and a bit of late afternoon sun. Seems to love it there, showing already more green at the top, but none at the bottom. I agree it looks really nice just the way it is out on the porch, but come fall it has to go indoors, and then if left as is, it will be getting too big for us, and perhaps top heavy.

A couple of Xmases back we had bought two poinsettias, a salmon colored one and this white one. I was planning to keep the salmon poinsettia which I liked better, not the white one, but the salmon went downhill very fast, so we were left with this feisty little survivor, and we do appreciate survivors.

I added more pics so you can see the "bare bottom". My plan in ca 3-4 weeks from now is to prune and re-pot it and cut it back to at least to where the stems are branching off right now, but there won't be any leaves left. I'll only do this if I know it will still leaf out.

Al, thanks for offering more info about re-potting, but you already provided me with some for my hibiscus which I followed through. I assume this works the same way?

Another thought is that I propagate a few stems in a couple of weeks, assuming that at least one will root and we'll have a white poinsettia for next Christmas; in this scenario we'll enjoy this plant as is till September when I re-pot and cut it back as already explained, but then it may not show any white bracts till spring...

I hesitate to propagate the poinsettia because I have not succeeded with propagating the hibiscus although I tried with at least 10 stems at different times, some in water, some in hormone and soil, all looked O.K. for several weeks then turned into a flop, a waste of time. Are poinsettias easier?

.

They are easy to root. I broke a paticularly nice bract off once and just stuck it in water and it rooted.

tj

Love it! SO pretty! I can relate to having plants that are getting too large to overwinter indoors.