They are fine! Floricanes get old! Some of mine do not do this, but Fall Gold and others do, no worries! The ones that tend to be spineless seem to do this. I have Allen black raspberry and the canes are purple, cool looking plant, super aggressive grower though. it wants to root all over! 6 times I pulled cane tips out of the ground last summer. So it will be easy to tell which canes you need to remove once they fruit.

IMO, leans such as either tree shown in this thread are ultimately insignificant. There will be so much growth in various directions as to make it completely non-issue. OP, while it is admirable that you bothered to follow directions with the planting, those cards are just as often wrong as right. The usual "plant at same depth as in the pot" or whatever completely misses the point that the root flare, that zone of buttressed growth where roots diverge from trunk, is to be left visible upon completion. Since trees are dug in nursery rows after various cultivation practices have thrown soil up over what will be the root ball, that can be completely obscured. Also in potted stock, the plant may well have been placed too deeply into the pot at some point. So directions of that sort are virtually of no value. I always advise that when in doubt about the truth of this concept, people take a walk in the woods and perhaps for the first time in their lives, see how trees actually grow. They kind of sit on top of the ground. And yes, a too-deep planting surely can start a tree down the road to bark/stem abnormalities although as Ark also points out, we can't know for certain what caused this with yours. +oM

Hi Genie9, sorry about your tree loss. Probably just an annoying bit of detail to you, but what are being referred to as mice are very likely actually voles. But hey, they look like mice, and they sure do eat a lot of plant bark. As the gentlemen above have suggested, it is not too late to protect what hasn't been completely girdled. Since you've put considerable effort into this planting, you may as well go the extra step and try to save what you can. Incidentally, rabbit damage will resemble small branches very cleanly cut off, almost as if by a hand pruner. But that bark damage is indeed voles. +oM

I have no suggestions. I am the one with the headphones on avoiding all the bodily function noises and humming and chomping that goes on in my dept. Never the one that speaks up. BUT something came to mind. You say she lost a lot of weight? My sister takes phentermine (a prescription diet drug) and it gives her extreme dry mouth. To the point of when she talks her lips sometimes get 'stuck' on her teeth because her mouth is SO dry and she often has bad breath. 1. From smoking and 2. The dry mouth. If she is on medication that cause dry mouth, that might be your answer to 'why'? Also if she drinks coffee with cream, smokes .. That adds to it. Do you think she is actually brushing her teeth in the mornings? I used to be in the dental field lol you guys don't laugh ... Dental to accountant .. Lol ok anyway - if she has severe sinus issues, she will have bad breath.. Notice any sneezing, coughing or complaints about sinus issues? She may not even realize it's effecting her. My ex often did not brush his teeth at bedtime. He would fall asleep in the recliner and then shuffle half asleep to the bedroom, strip and fall in the bed... I had to start saying, 'let's get ready for bed before we turn the tv on' and then I would brush my teeth and he would follow my example. Not the same situation but wondering of she brushed during the day if that would help. I brush at work because I try to keep myself from drinking too much coffee or snacking... So I brush and gargle twice sometimes three times a day. A few ladies liked the 'smell' of my fresh clean mouth just walking in to the room so they asked, 'do you brush at work?'. Why yes. Yes I do. And so now several of us are 'work' brushers... I second the go to the HR dept if that doesn't work, maybe just take her away quietly or step outside. I did have to confront someone about something embarrassing once and she was actually quite grateful. Granted it wasn't her breath but it was her perfume. I was sneezing all day and because I was miserable I finally just said 'hey can I talk to you for a minute? I love your perfume but I think I'm allergic to it' and she was like omg! Everyone has been sneezing and I thought you guys just had colds... Thank you sooo much for telling me how embarrassing. She just switched and didn't wear as much. Good luck and Hey be sure to let us know what you do and how it turns out