Need help with Tagetes Lemmonii before it dies!

[DDOZ]

To start with, I live in the hot desert in southern California. I picked up a few plants at the local nursery on Tuesday one of which is a Tagetes Lemmonii (Mountain Marygold) with the plan to develop them into Bonsai. I haven't even had a chance to do anything with them yet, but it is not looking good. See the two photos one when I brought it home and the other just now only 2 days later. At the Nursery they had them out in direct sunlight. When I got it home, I put in out on the side of my house where it gets direct morning sun up until about noon. I sprayed it with water yesterday and again today. All the leaves are drooping down (I assume like it needs water). Any advice is welcome. I don't want it to die before I have a chance to do anything with it. I know that this plant isn't a very common Bonsai plant but it is supposed to thrive well in the desert.

 

[rockm]

Water the SOIL well until water comes out of the drain holes. Simply spraying it only sets the leaves which don’t take up water

 

[DDOZ]

Thanks - The soil around the trunk seems pretty compacted so that may be part of the problem. I'll give it a good dunking and see if that perks it up.