Looks like canker to me. I have always been told to cut below the infected area with clean (dip in bleach water) shears. Bleach after every cut you make and hope for the best.
Sunburn wouldn't do that in my opinion.
A more established rose has a better chance of surviving canker. I have a few that are very susceptible to it but keep on going. I have lost bareroots to it.
Good luck!
Maybe someone else will have another opinion.
Kathy

Yes,I would say canker.
Kathy, you mentioned you lost bareroots to canker. Do you think they came with it? I am losing a lot of canes. A couple of the bareroots are getting to the point where I don't want to look at them. Depressing. (Maybe pot them and see what happens) Do they come with canker? Or is it my fault?

Allison

That tree rose. You sure the cane didn't get broken? It's probably not sun burn, but, something else.

I'm new to rose gardening and have never experienced anything like that yet on the yellow darkening canes. If it is a disease the affected parts on the canes will have to be removed.

My research is telling me that canker fungus is most active in colder weather, so, if new bare-rooted plants were kept in the cold, they could be infected by the fungus.

JIM

Article on Canker:

After a long cold wet winter, roses can be expected to have some dead and cankered canes. While these pathogenic fungi are not very sophisticated, they can cause considerable damage. The problems can be especially acute on old established roses that have lost some vigor and on young bare root roses emerging from cold storage.

SYMPTOMS: In early spring, pruned stems provide wound sites which can be colonized by canker causing fungi. The stems will yellow, often have red spots and later become brown or black. Black erumpent spots can often be found in the discolored tissue which are the fruiting structures of the fungus containing spores.

DISEASE CYCLE: The canker fungus is most active during the cold time of the year when roses are not actively growing. Pruning cuts or wounds on stems provide sites of entry for germinating spores. The fungi are not high level pathogens and can not produce the disease when conditions are favorable for plant growth. During the dormant months, fungi colonize the tissues, sporulate and are spread to other pruning or wound sites. The disease can be extensive and severe under the ideal conditions for development.

CONTROL: Promoting vigorous growth and removal of dead canes and stubs will help to reduce the primary source of inoculum. When pruning before winter always make an angular cut close to an active bud so the callus can form a protective layer before winter. A dormant spray could be used to protect pruning cuts and wounds during the cold and wet winter. In spring, removal of infected canes and a general spray program for fungal diseases should reduce canker problems and protect the plants until they can become vigorous growers once again.

Hope this helps. JIM

Jimi1961, I just finished reading that article. How funny from everything on the web we hit the same article... That is why I posed that question.
I am new to bareroots this year and in my readings on bareroots it is never mentioned you may get one (or 4 out of 6) that is fungus laden and may lose it. I was diligent about cleaning shears and removed canes that were suspect. The only thing I could say I didn't do was cut of all canes that had a "rub" area on it. Also sealing the ends I was good about, for borers. (I probably sealed in the fungus.) Being a newbie I thought that that was the only reason I had lost canes in the past(before bareroots), or that they were old.
Hmmm.

Yankeesrule, at least it looks like you are dealing with canker on one bush and it looks like a strong bush. I am going through exactly the same thing. I did plant them straight into the ground but they started out wonderful and then the canes one by one yellow and then brown moving down. I cut them off but then I noticed another and then another. This is only happening on my bareroot HT and GRs not English.
I think I was blaming myself somehow. This kinda irks me that it isn't my fault 'cause, at this point, I have no CONTROL over it! :-P
At least I have my Abraham Darby (bareroot) he is flawless. One out of I don't want to say how many....We will survive this!

Aggressive pruning is your best option. I would reduce a lot of the foliage to minimize plant stress. Spray for fungal disease and move some of the surface dirt from the base for now to get air moving among the canes and as much sun reaching the base as possible. Best natural healers there is. I would also mulch the area around [not next to ] the rose to cool the roots and keep re-infection splashing from the ground. I think our early cool wet conditions did not help.

Cheap bare-root plants, or any bare-roots planted after April, often suffer from canker and dieback. They have been held in cold storage since November. If conditions are not perfect, they can suffer freeze damage or dehydration. Discount roses have not been carefully inspected, culled, and pruned-- or they may be culls from a premium operation.

Just prune the bad canes off, or to a bud eye at least 1" below any black or yellow bark. It looks like the healthy areas are growing well, so I'd leave them alone.

Obviously the cane underlying the dead area on the tree rose has been physically injured so it cannot function. It is broken, bored by an insect, or girdled by a canker lesion.

Water on leaves does not cause burning-- that's an old wives tale.

(Water on leaves does not cause burning-- that's an old wives tale.)

Michaelg, I always wondered about your statement as I have had wet leaves many times in sunshine and never had no burn.

JIM

Here's why water droplets don't cause burning. (In case you're dying to know, lol.)

For droplets to have that magnifying lens effect, they would have to rest on the leaf surface upside down. It's the concave surface that focuses the light energy to a point, not the flat surface. Actually, water droplets disperse light energy.

One more old HUSBAND'S tale dead and buried!

Michaelg, you didn't mention if the bare-roots can start out seemingly very healthy and then start cane dieback and canker? (just so you know mine were not cheapie bareroots and I did plant them in March) Also, I have had new healthy growth from a cane that is turning yellow too. Have you seen a yellow cane ever turn green and healthy again? Thank you for sharing your knowledge and kind patience with newbies Michaelg.

Allison
ps I have never had a problem burning leaves from water.

Allison,

Generally I've had good results from bareroots that came from a good supplier like Pickering-- except when I tried fall planting or summer planting.

One exception I recall was, some years ago, a now-defunct California grower (Arena) suffered a malfunction of climate control in their storage facility and freezer-burned a whole crop. I ended up with several of these in an order from Regan Nurseries. The plants were alive but enfeebled and died back. Regan volunteered to replace them.

If a cane is producing healthy growth, I'd leave it so long as it does. Canes do turn various colors in their second year, in transition from green to barky. Not bright yellow, though.

michaelg, thank you for your response. I believe I will take it up a notch from now on as far as where I order bare-roots. Or if I will after this. lol yeeesh. I asked about the cane turning back to green because of my experience turning around a whole plant when it was yellow from nutrient imbalance. But that wasn't a fungus. This board really helps to think things through and come up with conclusions. Very satisfying feeling. Thank you.

Allison

In case I wasn't clear, canes don't turn back to green, but they do turn from green to the mature brown or barky gray. In transition they may be splotchy or streaky with yellowish or reddish tones. This transition could be mistaken for a disease symptom.

Well, i questioned my oldest son, and he confessed that he was playing catch with a friend, using a basketball, and that he missed the basketball. So a few broken canes solved that mystery. As far as the one with the canker, it was painful, but i cut the infected canes, and cleaned my pruners after each cut with alcohol. I hope it will be ok.

Yes, hopefully it will be ok. Roses are tough buggers.
Best of luck!