A lot of this depends on what kind of Austin Rose you have. I have 6 Austins in pots currently. I planted them in 20" plastic containers that you can buy at your local Lowe's or elsewhere. Just buy some moisture control potting soil and mix in some RoseTone or other light rose fertilizer and/or compost mix and you should be good to go.

Ed- Almost no palm likes full sun immediately, although W. filifera would probably take it if you did give it. Leave it in partial shade until it is about a foot tall, then you can give it both sun and fertilizer. You really don't even need to give it fertilizer, these guys are so fast.

Hi Keiko, yeah, too little water or too much water, it leads to the same thing - the death of the root system, and the plant shriveling in that way, from the bottom up. Obviously Doug has the right advice and your plan is sound. You don't have to section the plant up into several cuttings unless you want to for insurance. I went through this with an elliptica this weekend and I just cut vine from the bottom until I got to a healthy section, where the vine wasn't shriveled and it bled well, and stuck it into my rooting medium up to the lowest node. I can't tell from your pictures if you actually have mealies. When you touched the white spots was it sticky fluffy stuff or was it dry and chalky? It just looks like dried sap to me. Yes, there are soil mealy bugs and foliar mealy bugs, but they are two different creatures from different families. (Technically, there are many different soil mealies and many different foliar mealies.) My point, though, is that if you see mealy bugs hanging out on your vines and leaves, these same bugs won't also be in the soil. Of course, you could have two infestations going on at the same time, but that would just be bad luck! The fungus gnats won't hurt your Hoya. Technically they do eat plant roots (as well as algae and fungus in the potting media), but they die off when you let the medium dry out, so they aren't a serious concern for Hoya people like us. But they are a sign that this pot has been too damp for too long. So, that's not good. You don't necessarily need to repot the healthy Hoya, since it's survived the ordeal, but you should let it dry out well and be watchful of how that decorative pot affects its water retention. Could be you just had a wonky period with your watering, or it could be the wrong setup. You just have to keep an eye on the situation and if that plant is routinely drying out slower than all the ones next to it, change the medium or the cache pot.

You are a lot more tolerant than I :-) Unless it had a strong emotional attachment, I would not bother with the time and effort involved in getting this plant into a healthy condition. Growth is very slow in winter and root rot is hard to come back from. And I do believe the appearance is due primarily to root rot, not the repotting. Just don't have room for ugly, half dead plants in my life :-) FWIW, I grow an epiphyllum that is not an attractive plant. In fact, my sister seldom fails to comment on its appearance every time she visits. It produces long and lanky growth and forms odd looking protrusions. But that is just the nature of the plant itself and the flowers, when produced, make up for it. OTOH, the pachira should be very full and lush looking.