Pinching out cosmos

[TheOneWiththeNicestSmile]

I got these 2 at a plant fair last month (still haven't got around to planting )

There is one bud at the top of each & one coming on each of the side shoots from the bottom

If I pinch them out now will they get bushier? If so where should I pinch? How far down to stop them being so leggy?

& should I also pinch subsequent side shoots so that they bush out?

Sorry about fismos. I thought it had autocorrected

Hi there, OP! We've edited the title for you now.

oh thank you, Iona

Far from an expert but I think I would do the one of the left, the main stem down to about the second set of leaves amd leave the one on the right.

Do you watch Gardener's World? Monty did his a couple of weeks ago - perhaps you can catch it on iPlayer. From what I remember he just hacked the tops off!

Thanks, both

Sugarplum, do you mean the wide pair of leaves or the narrower pair below?

Cupcakes, there are 4 episodes on iplayer - do you happen to remember which one it was? (Though it looks like they all get shown on 4 separate occasions so I can see it would be hard to be sure!)

www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mw1h/broadcasts/2015/06

Though actually it might be quite nice to just have a massive GW session & watch them all. I used to watch it ages ago but got out of the habit

Ermmm.. no. Sorry! I vaguely remember he was planting them around something REALLY big. Maybe his banana tree?

Might have to be the mammoth GW session.

Most important thing is to get them planted out, then they can take off. I always have a collection of plants at this time of year that haven't made it into the ground - just need to make myself plant them so I don't waste time watering them in the pots every day!

Even if you can't get them in the garden yet, at least pot them into much larger pots of compost. Keep well watered, and water when planted out.

[Not a banana tree but New Zealand Flax I think, Phormium Tenax.]