Lets take this subject a bit further!
You say:
I'm a bit confused about further pinching out; some advise pinching the tops out again at about 8 inches high,
others say remove side shoots.......
I'm growing them for cutting not showing, and all the plants a have two side shoots and a main shoot and are about 7 inches high.
OK what is Stopping?
This consists of pinching out the growing tips to encourage flower-bearing laterals.
The reason for 'stopping' them, pinching them out as you put it, is to give some control on the number, size, type and time of the flowers you will ultimately get.
Sadly this has been curtailed somewhat because they were stopped prior to you getting them.
If I had received the plants in this condition I would have sent them back!
But now you have them lets see how we can make the best of what you have got.
I have looked in the catalogue to see what the varieties you have look like and what type are they.
Sadly I don't like what I see in so far as I cant tell if they are disbuds growing as sprays or indeed true sprays.
I will take them in turn and comment on them individually.
'Blenda Purple'
This one is so young when the picture was taken it is difficult to say if it is a true Spray or a disbud that has been allowed to set many flowers.
'Bella Orange'
I think this is a true Spray.
'Bruno Bronze'
This is a true spray I think but on seeing all these buds I would say it has been poorly grown an that is, the side shoots have been allowed grow.
'Littleton Red'
I see this one in the same way as Bruno Bronze.
'Smokey Purple'
This is another spray that was very young when its picture was taken and it is difficult to assess its potential.
'Payton Blaze Red'
Another one with too many buds for my liking!
OK what are we going to do about it?
As I see it we have a silk purse and pigs ear situation meaning....can we do it or not?
You say you want to go for re-stopping or a '2nd stop' to use the correct parlance.
The stopping is no problem but whether you will successfully root the tip I am not sure, but as they say nothing ventured then nothing gained so go for it!
If it does root it might not flower outdoors so I would suggest you pot the rooted cuttings up and grow them on in a 5"-6" pot so that you can fetch them indoors when the weather turns cold later in the season, i.e. treat them as late flowering specimens. If nothing else and they survive the winter you will have additional stock to take cuttings from next year.
StoppingHave a look at the table on my website
Begin Stopping Programme 20-22
20-22 14-18 18-24
Which is any time over the next two weeks I often use the end of the month subject to the quality of my plants.
Examples:A Typical plant that is ready for its first stop.Note this one is in a pot for demo reasons but the same technique would be used if they were planted out in the bed.
The stopping pointAs you are going to try and root the tip I would suggest you go down to the next leaf joint and this will give you a longer cutting.
A Plant that has been stopped.
The Removed tip
Prepared Cutting
Yours will be longer if you have gone down to the next leaf joint.
Now this is what I think has happened at Raven's!
In this case what happened was the tip was accidently broken off and the plant prematurely made low breaks.
But the synic in me suggests that with your plants this stopping was done for commercial reasons and that is they wanted the tip to produce another rooted cutting so they can earn a few bob more from the plant i.e. two for the price of one...........this is naughty but I have done it myself on occasions when I am short of cutting material so not surprising.
For example if I have sent for rooted cuttings I have asked for an early delivery so to give me a bit of time to form another rooted cutting.
You were not given this opportunity and that is the reason I would have sent them back!
To sum up and for the benefit of others reading this post always go to a NCS approved supplier and you are more likely to get good stock.(But not alway)
Back to further cultural procedures with what you have got:
I previously mentioned that once you have stopped your plant you usually will have very little more to do until the plants are in bud.
But in your case based on all the buds I saw in the catalogue pictures I think you will find that you are going to get lots of side shoots forming in the leaf joints before bud formation.
These want removing!
An analogy would be a tomato plant! as you know if you do not remove the sideshoots they will turn into wispy soft growths that may fruit but the fruit quality is poor.
The same will happen with chrysants like these, that is the side shoot will be too soft and bendy to support the flower head, so you end up with a plant that looks like a chandalier
OK lets say you end up with anything between three to six breaks the stems will normally be quite woody and about the thickness of your little finger, and topped with a series of buds and here lies the crux of the matter for you!
With a true spray you will have a cluster of buds with the crown bud in the centre which should be removed to allow space for the surrounding buds to open and produce open flowers.
With Dis-buds the procedure is slightly different in so far as you remove all the periphial buds and leave the crown bud to flower hence the name...disbud!
Now I am going to close here as the rest would only be speculation but perhaps when your plants come into bud you might upload a few pictures of the plants and hopefully there might be tell tale signs that would tell you (and me) to treat them as sprays or disbuds.
I hope this information has been of assistance to you,and if there is anything you are unsure of give us a shout....Tg
