Your experiences with it sound a lot like mine. I tried a lot of different things, including a little bit of sun which luckily only burned a small section of the plant before I rescued it. Finally set it out in a shady spot in my jungle, and it limped along until well into December. Disappeared again, and has not re-appeared even though I gave the pot a little sprinkle of fert and lots of water after the weather warmed. That pot is still sitting out there . . .
I also tried starting another plant from cuttings but had no luck whatsoever.
Somebody must know how to grow these things because you sure do see nice big ones in the stores when they appear.
