Dwarf eucalyptus- pruning

[Agoddessonamountaintop]

Hello gardeners! I have a eucalyptus gunnii France Bleu which was about 8 inches when I bought it a few years ago but sadly was never properly cared for and is now this sorry-looking twig of a thing, about 4ft high. One of its tiny branches snapped off at some point, which I think was the leading branch, and it just seems to grow upwards without filling out.
i’d love to make the most of its foliage and will be repotting it asap, but I’m wondering whether pollarding it might make it bush out - or maybe just kill it off completely? Because it’s a dwarf variety I’m nervous that it doesn’t have the oomph to renew itself - it does grow quite slowly compared to the usual giant varieties.
Dithering, can anyone help?

Well, they can be coppiced, which I think would be a better option than pollarding.

I would just cut through the main stem, quite low down, maybe about 3-4 inches. Maybe leave it in the same pot for now but refresh the top part of the compost.

Now's the ideal time to do it and see what happens over the summer. If it puts up lots of new shoots you will end up with a nice bushy plant, if it dies you haven't lost anything.

Ah thanks, do you mean take 3 - 4 inches off the main shoot - or 3 - 4 inches above ground? Actually I think that’s what coppicing is, isn’t it? I’d love a nice bushy plant, but yes it’s not pretty at the moment so might as well get the chop!

That's right, cut the whole thing off just leaving a stump of 3 inches. Kill or cure!

Ive done this with a couple of trees and shrubs (viburnum, wigelia, buddleia) and have never ceased to be amazed at how they come back.

I wouldn't go that far - it might be too much of a shock if it isn't doing all that well anyway. If you want it to look like a small tree with a trunk rather than a bush, I'd reduce each of the 3 main stems by 50%, and see what happens this year.

Right maybe I’ll try that in the first instance, see how it goes. I’ll save the chop for mext year!

The RHS recommends hard pruning every year to produce the more attractive foliage. https://www.rhs.org.uk/plants/374761/eucalyptus-gunnii-france-bleu-(-rengun-pbr)/details

By chance I saw this picture in the Hayloft catalogue. They also advocate yearly hard pruning.

If this is the look you have in mind I would go for the more drastic option and cut it down quite short.

Hayloft

Thanks so much all. I think I’ll do the hard-pruning thing - I’ve got a couple of little future replacements that I can nurture and eventually have what I’d like whether this works or not!

Do let us know how it goes.

The plant in the Hayloft picture looks very pretty - I'm quite tempted!