John, I got the tree from Meehan's in August '09. It went thru two winters in good health. I repotted it in early April; the candles were elongating, but not starting to open yet. I put it into a 3:2:1 mix of scoria, bark and Turface.
I did bare-root it, to get all of Meehan's old mix off. (There was a distinct difference in particle size; my mix was coarser, overall.) I tried to be gentle with the roots, but may not have been as gentle as needed.
I gave it good aftercare, I believe: partial shade, misting, extra care in watering. It looked OK for a month or so, but growth never resumed, and the foliage eventually began to die. From there it was all downhill.
I've been at a loss to explain why it died. One possibility I considered was that I had left voids in the mix that let roots dry out. But from what has been said here, I wonder if I simply manhandled the roots too much.
Thoughts?