HI there, I know this question is a year old but I've just joined the forum! I live in France and grew this Galaxy variety for the first time last Spring (06). I germinated 6 out of the whole packet (expensive!). The first 3 produced huge flowers (19 cm across)in July/August. One white, one pink and one red. One just unexpectedly died and the other two haven't produced any flowers. They were planted, still in their pots, in my veg patch and got full sun. Didn't feed them but will start to do this if I can get them through the winter. Incidentally, they are presently 3' tall. I first saw them in a border near my home and today, I revisited to see how they were faring (as it is now Autumn) and how the owners had treated them. They were covered in seedpods so I picked a few for next year - wish I had noted the colours when I first saw them. They haven't been pruned but I did notice that they were extremely bushy with many stems from the crown. Hope this is of some interest.

Considering you have so many sprouts from below the the first branch set, you can select ANY of the sprouts from the trunk and make that into your new tree. I have had two instances with the same tree of a similar but different situation: I have a red/silver cross (Acer x freemanii) that I dug as a 6" seedling from my grandmother's garden. Planted it into the ground in late October of 2009 to over-winter it safely. A rabbit came during that winter and ate the stem to 1" from the ground. Determined as I was, I dug it up, potted it up and let it sprout last spring. I nubbed off every sprout but the one closest to the cut end, and let that sprout shoot up for the duration of summer 2010. It grew almost to 3' tall. In December 2010, after the little tree had turned the most amazing shades of hot red, we had a 4 day unprecedented snow fall (snow squalls, lake effect snow) the likes of which snapped the stem to 6" from the ground (in a new pot, in the ground again for the winter). As soon as the ground was thawed in March, I lifted the pot and kept it on the deck/patio. Again, the stem was enthusiastic about leafing out, and all the dormant buds were activated. I nubbed them away, only keeping the highest one on the stem. It has grown nearly 2' in the past 6 weeks. The wound has healed over completely and the stem is growing like a weed. Moral of the story: I'm determined to grow this silly weed of a hybrid. Moral 2 of the story: Even when you lose the top of a tree for an uncontrollable reason (weather, animals, etc) you can still succeed. Pick a vigorous stem and cut away all others. This stem will become the new trunk and will grow a considerable amount this summer. Remove the entire dead top to about half an inch from the shoot you will keep. The removal of all others will force all the root energy into one stem. It will hopefully prepare for winter and drop its leaves in October. Your one stem will branch profusely in the spring next year. It will look a little funny (well, a lot funny) but you won't have thrown away a perfectly good plant.

first off - tropical or hardy? has it frozen over the winter? to see if its still alive - cut a branch a little bit down from the tip - look to see if the inside is green or brown. if its green - its alive. if its brown - that part is dead. cut farther down the branch to see if there is any green.

Yes, very different techniques, P. Layering, whether done in the 'air' and bagged or whether done by pinning a branch down into the soil, produces roots on the stem while the branch is still attached to the 'mother' plant. It isn't cut off and removed until after the roots are formed - and it tends to leave a thick 'stem' down through the center of the new roots that were formed. That can be parred down later and removed but it also removes a lot of the roots you were trying to make. Where as a regular cutting is just that - taken from the mother plant and /then/ roots are attempted to be grown. Which depending on the kind of plant and how it's done, could make roots come out of the sides of the stem or out around the bottom edge for a flat base. Layering is more likely to succeed but can be cumbersome and unsightly until it takes and can be cut off. When I wild collect material that aren't seedlings, I will often cut off the bottom tap root on the tree material to form a flat base for a shallow bonsai pot. The new roots that form then are around the edges much like 'root training' an arabicum or Thai Soco, but with a regular tree such as a Chinese Privet. Same technique though. I wire them down into the training pot so they can't shift about or fall over.