welcome to the forums ...

any chance at a pic or two ...

did i miss how big the transplant is??? ... where are you???

im not quite clear.. did you plant it in mother earth ... or repot? ... what is the soil/media its in now???

ALL evergreen type plants shed older leaves/needles.... it natural and cyclical ... this can be increased by transplanting.. due to the total interference with the root mass ... and it usually happens in winter ....

all water tolerances are thrown out the window with the transplanting ... they do need water to settle back down ... but even with that said.. i cant think of anything that needs water every day for weeks ... missing one day surely had little to do with this ...

plants should be watered when they need water .. we usually say to insert finger and find out ... or dig small holes ... and learn how it all works in your soil or media ...

with winter planting ... you usually cant tell much of anything.. until the spring flush ... and that is when you find out ...

though bare rooting sounds new to you ... i doubt there would be much of a horticultural industry without being able to do it ... so i dont think that is the root of the problem [see what i did there....lol]...

though there are some plants that are not very happy about it ... it shouldnt be all that big deal .... but there are two tricks ... first is watering properly .. and second is patience ... which i sum up.. by not trying to kill it with too much love ... two weeks isnt a long time.. in terms of a long lived perennial/tree/conifer/etc ....

just keep it moist.. not sodden ... in shade if you can ... and give it a few months.. until spring ... and lets see if it flushes out with new spring growth.. it is only then.. you will find out how stressed it is/was ...

finally.. its stressed.. not hungry ... so imo.. fert is not a proper response ..

ken

Probably the best thing would have been to find another source that's not peat laden. Having never lived where I could grow it, I don't have any specific recommendations.

I guess it will either live or die, and you can try again differently if the latter.

You didn't water enough - any recent transplant can be expected to require frequent watering during dry periods until established. And when you bare-root at planting you effectively make the plant into a cutting that happens to already have some roots on it, that may have to be watered accordingly until it recovers - deciduous subjects may even lose all of their leaves in response to the bare-rooting at planting. But are in most instances likely to grow a replacement set and continue on later. Without the root defects and problems with differences in soil textures that were eliminated during the bare-rooting.

Thanks for the advice.

Looks like I might've underestimated the water reqs here. A variety of other shrubs that were planted in a similar manner were certainly "watered in" more diligently, and while I don't doubt that this Texas Sage could see an uptick now that I'm looking to be a bit more attentive, my suspicion is that a good chunk of this wilting et al. might be indicative of said "cutting-with-roots" taking a bit too poorly to the new media (if at all).

Not looking to make a habit of cutting and running where plants are concerned (especially less than a month in), but given the meager size of the shrub, I'm tempted to plant a new one now rather than wait this out only to observe a generally decline-enamored lifespan.

You can compromise by slitting the root wads on the outside in two places opposite one another to interrupt circling but leaving them otherwise intact. Whether you leave potting media on or bare-root with both approaches you have to keep on top of the watering until the specimens are well rooted into the existing soil around the original root system.

>the excess had fallen off when the plant was removed from the nursery container<

I wonder about this, it means either the plant was recently planted in the pot it came in, from a smaller size or it had been having problems that had prevented it from filling the container with roots. If only the bottom half of the medium dropping off, with there being roots to the sides of the pots in the upper half then it means the perched water table in the bottom half was keeping the peat too wet for it.

(All media or soil filled nursery pots contain perched water tables, wherein water draining through the soil column backs up when it hits the drain holes, does not leave until the bottom half of the soil column is saturated. And then it may suddenly rush out all at once, creating a false impression of completely uninhibited drainage).