You are expecting something that has basically been abused to bounce back to perfect in a single day?
When I say 'abused' I don't mean that you were mean to it...but you have traumatized it
1.You say it was 'bad' when you got it. So you think it was already struggling.
2. you tore all its various pieces apart
3. You took it out of its favored substrate (soil) and stuck it in a jar of water
Its in shock. You have given it significant trauma. It needs time to recover. You can't expect it to look like a show plant overnight after all that. Especially at this time of the year (winter) when a lot of plants slow down anyway.
