Touching and stroking a plant will aid in it growing healthy ...

A Touch Of The Green Thumb
For all the tender care we lavish on plants in our homes and greenhouses, we don't get the same results as if that plant had grown outside in Nature. Perhaps because we are lacking Mother Nature's touch, quite literally.

Scientists have discovered that they can artificially duplicate the growth trends of plants, by touching them. The process is referred to a thigmomorphogenesis, a reaction of plants to repeated physical disturbances such as wind, or the constant brushing against other plants, rock, trees, etc. Thigmormorphogenesis may inhibit cells, keeping them from elongating, and causing others to develop a thickness that will make them stronger and more able to stand up to the environmental disturbance.

In Nature, this often results in a shorter, sturdier looking plant, as opposed to tall, thin plants grown indoors that reach for inadequate light sources, and are never challenged by the force of blowing air, or regular brushing against other objects.

The good news is, you can make your chrysanthemum burgeon into a fat basket of blooms, by regularly touching and stroking the leaves and stems. Theoretically, when done on the same basis that such contact would occur outdoors, the plant will respond by altering its growth pattern to resist damage