Shortia uniflora - vine weevil?

[brianw]

I have been nurturing this Shortia for a year or two having bought a healthy plant from Pottertons, on a visit. This grew fine for the first year but only produce a few flowers and then grew into quite a nice plant by last autumn. Since then the leaves have bronzed up rather a lot and I recent decided to carefully pot on into a larger pot disturbing the root ball as little as possible. Just as I was finishing by tidying up the dead leaves I realised the plant had almost no root system and lifted it off complete. Just one shoot detached, the rest is still "together". I carefully put it aside and removed the old root ball from the center of the pot and replaced it with fresh compost, before replacing the plant on the pot. What do you think are my chances of getting a decent root system back on the plant before it dies. At present it is in a large clear (ish) polythene sack on the north (out)side of my greenhouse, loosely tied at the top. I have bought some vine weevil killer but not applied it yet.
My garden is largely alkaline and rather warm for such a plant with low rainfall so a pot is more or less essential, at present at least.

[johnw]

Classic vine weevil damage.

I'd under pot it in a mix of rather fine granite grit or pumice and the debris from a rotten of pine tree stump, 50/50.  Slip it into a plastic bag and place it under flurorescent lights.  Prayer to the gods.

Add the weevil killer after the plant is well-rooted and growth is underway.

johnw

[brianw]

Thanks John. I was having second thoughts about having all of that, at present unused, new compost present and whether it might discourage rather than encourage new roots to form. Do you think the "active" organic mix of rotting wood will be better than something more sterile like moss peat or sphagnum moss itself?