On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 16:46:49 -0400, "Carolyn LeCrone"
wrote:

"Max Caviar" wrote i

How precisely, is this done? I keep reading about this, but not sure
I understand what is being suggested. Are you to just pinch new buds
once, multiple times, ...? How hard are you to pinch these things
anyway? Enough to slightly crush them, or less?

In case you weren't being a jokester, "pinch" means to remove. So you
remove buds from chrysanthemums early in the season so that the plant bushes
out and blooms later.

Whoever first used "pinch" or "pinch back" has a lot to answer for.
Would it be clearer if it were called "tip pruning"? Still, "pinch"
implies, helpfully, that in many cases, tender new growth at the tip
of branches can be 'snipped' off with the fingernails.