Lemon Eucalyptus

Some time early in the Spring I purchased a package of lemon eucalyptus seeds from Richters. The success has been tremendous with them, although I was wondering if you could provide some info. about the plant itself. How big does this plant get? (Currently I have a grouping of 3 that measures approx. 24" high, with leaves that measure about 8-10" long by about 4-6" wide.) I was also wondering about the woodiness of the stems....the stems are only starting to get woody now, at this size. Is this normal? I was also wondering about pinching out to encourage bushiness. This doesn't seem to work well, and so I am guessing that this type of plant doesn't fill out in this manner?

Lemon eucalyptus will make a fragrant houseplant if it is pruned to the size desired. In its native Australia it grows 15 to 50 meters tall and 12 to 25 meters wide. However in commercial plantations, the plant is pruned down to 3 meters and the terminal branchlets produced by the repeated prunings are collected and dried. Every 4 years the trees are cut down to 5 centimeters and then allowed to grow to 3 meters again. You might like to adopt this regimen of pruning for your plants as well.
It is perfectly normal for the current years growth to turn woody in the fall. It just means your plants were growing so vigorously that they did not turn woody until their growth slowed in the fall.