The air where it is may be too dry. You should be able to start taking them both outside to harden off (starting in a shadey spot and moving to more sun over time).

One other thing - I left my baby pee gee out the first winter after I got it (it was a 1 gallon) but put it against my balcony wall out of the wind. The next winter I kept it near the rail and it got buried in snow and did just fine. Now I keep it next to the rail permanently and it gets buried in whatever snow falls every winter (I've had it for 4 years). So you can leave your paniculatas out this coming winter. My little one bloomed for the first time last summer and I decided to try it in a totally different spot this year - down by the sunny & windy western end of the balcony.

Thanks Jenny,

I put the limelight out. I hope that was the reason and not some fungus in the soil that infected the core of the plant. The reason I thought it was a fungus is because I have two Pee Gees in the same room and they haven't shown any signs of leaf wilt.

Sounds like a disease to me. Put it outside, change the pot, wash off the soil and find a protected spot in the ground away from the other healthy plants. Start hardening your other plants too, change their soil and pots or they could be next.

Loretta - amaranthena lives in a hi-rise apt with a balcony in the city like me. We have no "ground" to plant in. :-)

amaranthena - once you have your babies hardened off, you can move them in a sunny spot and see what happens. Keep us updated!

So I followed Jenny's advice and put the limelight out on the terrace. New leaves have sprouted and so far no wilt. A few are medium in size and the rest are tiny. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hoping it's not a disease.

I will keep you updated. If it turns out to be a disease how to I clean off the soil? Do I remove it from the pot and rinse the soil off the roots? Won't that stress the plant?