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Dumb Question, But I have to ask

15 years ago

how do you tell if a plant is COMPLETELY dead? I had very strange things happen with some roses I planted last year. They were lovely and appeared healthy and were flowering off and on and were growing and then KAPOOEY, it turned black and now looks dead. This particular plant never showed signs of disease, no BS, just healthy lush leaves and lovely flowers.

What could have gone wrong? And now, how is best to tell if it's truly dead?

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Comments (7)

ingrid_vc so. CA zone 9
15 years ago
Do you have gophers in your area? They'll eat the roots and the rose can go from gorgeous to dead in a very short time.
york_rose
15 years ago
Are the stems brown all the way to the base (where they emerge from the ground, or from the bud union if the rose is grafted and the graft is above ground)? Even more significantly, but don't follow my advice (get the advice of an experienced rose grower in your area), if you scrape off just a smidge of the brown with your fingernail is the underlying stem tissue also brown, or is it green?
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rjinga
Original Author
15 years ago
I will take a closer look and do some scaping...we do not have gophers that I'm aware of and I never saw the ground disturbed around them...I guess if I determine that it is dead, I'll pull it out and examine the roots and maybe something will reveal itself as the cause...thanks for responding.
diane_nj 6b/7a
15 years ago
Black, crispy, dead. Shake the plant, and if it moves easily, it was disturbed in some way, either by being rocked by wind or by a critter (we have voles in NJ, not so much gophers). Also, check the drainage of the soil, if it was too wet (or too dry), that could have been a contributing problem. One more thing to check on is if the roots were compacted.
dublinbay z6 (KS)
15 years ago
If the black does not go all the way to the ground (or to the graft, if it is above ground), there is an easy way to check if the rose is still alive. Prune the cane down an inch or more below the black part. If the center of the pruned cane is bright white, your rose is in good shape. If the center of the pruned cane has a brown circle in the middle, cut down another inch or two--until you arrive at the clear white centers.

I usually associate dark canes with canker. That has nothing to do with BS or other diseases. Canker is the disease. I'm not sure what causes it, but after winter, during the spring thaws, some of my roses show traces of canker--and I prune as directed above. If I can find that white center, the rose will live.

Kate
katefisher
15 years ago
Good advice above already. Just wanted to share with you about a rose I planted last year that was from a body bag. It had been doing well in a container but I had an opening so I planted it in the ground. For a few days it looked great. I noticed it was ailing a few days later and that weekend went to do a closer inspection. I noticed a giant cane borer hole in the main cane and when I reached down to touch it the whole rose simply fell over. It seems it was a double attack by Mother Nature of cane borer and gophers:) I was cranky about it for a little while until I figured out which other rose from my pot ghetto could go there and then all was good again.

Hope this helps.

Kate
mike_rivers
15 years ago
You'd think there must be some catastrophic explanation for this. Animals eating the roots is certainly one. How about weed killers or overdose of a soluble fertilizer?

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