Fuschia - what has happened!?

Beware Charlie, vine weevil adults lay their eggs just under the soil level in pots and baskets through summer. You may not see them as they are active at night, and as we all know, you don't know you've got them till the damage is done. :(

 

I had a fuschia thalia in a planter which I kept in the greenhouse overwinter, it was slow making a start this year.
Gave it a tug today and it came out the planter with hardly any root.
Got white grubs in the roots but they dont have the brown heads, should have took a pic, could it be something else?

 

?White mealy bugs?These are tiny. Also tiny vine weevils have hardly noticeable heads?

 

Betcha its vine weevil Pete, sometimes on the smaller ones the heads aren't noticable.

You may be able to rescue the plant if you trim it back and repot - or take cuttings. Thalia roots fairly easily.

 

I've repotted it along with the begonia sutherlandii that were in the planter, I hope it recovers it is quite woody and the only one of a plant that was given to me many years ago when thalia was a bit special

 

Good luck - thalia is lovely. Unfortunately I've notiticed the last couple of years, Kinder plants who supply the tot plants - has stopped doing Thalia. Sad cos the one they now do is nothing like as good. Fortunately I have cuttings in addition to overwintered plants.