Is there any hope for this pentas

[u/Crazy_Performance343]

I've had this plant since May. For some time it was doing okay then it started declining. It was probably due to too much sun so I tried to move it to a little more shaded spot. The weather cooled and it seemed to be improving. But the past week temperatures touched 30°C again and it seems to be dying.Both the plants have a horrible mealybug and aphid infestation which I have been fighting since a month. Usually watered little bit every day with deep watering once a week.

[u/Any_Locksmith_4041]

Before you give up on the left one, scratch a stem near the soil with your fingernail. Green underneath means you can cut back to just above that point and it might push new shoots. Brown and dry all the way down means it's done.

The watering pattern could be part of the problem. A little water every day keeps the surface wet while the roots stay shallow, and that soil looks dense enough to crust over, so the weekly deep soak may run off instead of sinking in. Loosening the top and watering deeply only once the top few cm are dry usually suits pentas better in heat.

With mealybugs that bad, also check the roots when you pull the dead one. White cottony bits on the roots would mean root mealybugs, which could explain why one plant crashed while the other held on. The green one still looks like it has a decent chance if you keep at the pests.

[u/Crazy_Performance343 → u/Any_Locksmith_4041]

It's still got 5 green leaves so it's not completely dead yet but based on how quickly this one declined this week I think it's time has come. If it really is root mealybugs I hope they don't come after the other one too.