Rescue my plant

[ohthejoy21]

Last summer I bought this lovely pot plant. It stayed out and was neglected all winter and even had building rubbish chucked on it, I'm surprised it even survived!
A couple of weeks ago I tried to revive it and cut off all the dead bits. It now has a few buds but it looks scruffy/very messy and I'm wondering what I can do to tidy it up and help it to grow evenly.
I've bought another one this summer so have included a pic of how it used to look.

I'd be really grateful of any tips please. Thank you

Looks like carnations? If so, read this article : www.gardenguides.com/prune-leggy-carnations-10268.html

If not carnations, please ignore my irrelevant post

@CobraChicken thank you!
There's lots of new branches growing off other stems, this is making it messy and straggly.
So should I just cut them all back to where my thumb is in the pic and sacrifice new buds to eventually hope new ones would grow neater?

Sorry I know I'm clueless!!

The bits you cut off can be dipped in rooting powder then potted up in compost. With luck, you will end up with several free plants!

It looks like Dianthus known as Pinks. They do go leggy if not trimmed after flowering. I cut off the leggy bits, like you are holding, strip off the lower leaves and put them in a small pot of 50% compost and 50% grit.
Keep them watered and they will regrow into new plants. The main plant will rejuvenate and flower.
If you’ve no compost or grit, put them in a jam jar of water and they’ll still grow roots.

Excellent! Thanks all so much! .... off to Amazon for compost!!

Ah dianthus.
They are notorious for getting woody and unattractive if you don’t severely prune them once a year (I have many ugly woody ones that I forgot to prune!)

I usually buy new baby ones and stuff them inbetween the woody stems to give the impression of a lovely full, thick, non woody dianthus bed 😉

They are apparently very easy to root from cuttings but every time I have tried they’ve died!!

I will try water propagating this year as PP suggests

@TheDiddlyGang
Thanks so much!
It's a shame because they are so pretty when new!
I've chopped them all off and put in water until my compost and rooting powder arrives. Fingers crossed!
Thanks everyone