Beginner Gardening: pieris japonica isn't growing roots WHY?, 0 by audreymarmot

audreymarmot wrote:
hi everyone,
i bought a pieris japonica 'flaming silver' from lazy ss farm. it arrived in excellent shape, with a good root system. i loosened up the root ball, potted it into a larger container, set it in a part sun spot that i thought was ideal. watered it weekly. during the summer it lost most of its top growth and when i went to plant it now, in the fall, i see that it didn't grow any new roots at all -- in fact the root ball was substantially smaller than when it arrived.
what did i do wrong? i seem to lose rhododendrons like this too. does anyone know what i should do NOW to encourage the plant to live?
thanks so much, fellow gardeners!