From my gardens, there're two different black cane problems.
One is the death of yearling and occassionally one year old canes that die completely because they didn't harden off sufficiently before winter and winter killed them dead-leaving black canes.
The other is (IMO) worse because it is fast moving. What starts as a black oval on a cane grows fast. I've seen it kill a cane in ten days. My problems with it were spring and early summer. Once I had seen the damage it did, I started to react fast. And I'd cut below the black, Then I cleaned my secateurs with bleach, wiped the bleach with water, and cut again lower, And repeated the cleaning of the secateurs after each lower cut at least twice. Then watch closely.
That cures the problem on six roses (four cultivars) which had what I called creeping black crud. But cleanliness and really sharp and smooth secateurs to start with were necessities.
Good luck.

Thanks for the advice. I have been growing roses for years and I haven't thought about this disease. I guess I was ignorant of it. I did cut all of them below the black canes except the two that I've mentioned. I will see what happens next.

There are several different fungal cankers but none of them is officially named "black stem." It might be botrytis, This can enter through wounds including pruning cuts and it seems more aggressive on winter-damaged or dormant canes. However, some cases of a rose dying back are mysterious. I hope your problem will subside as the weather warms.

Thanks guys. Most likely I will shovel prune it because I don't see any growth yet. It is third week of may. Anyways, I got 3 unplanted roses still in the original pot but it may not be the ideal spot since they are climbers which I am planning to grow as shrubs: Rosarium Uetersen, Westerland and Lichtkoningin Lucia. The spots may be a bit tight but I can temporarily plant it there and decide where to transplant next year.

'Rosarium Uetersen' IMO doesn't work as a shrub. It makes six-foot laterals that bow under the weight of huge, heavy clusters, so the flowers are all lying in the mulch.

It sounds like the cause of your aggressive canker was winter damage taking out the immune system.

jjpeace, I want to thank you for starting this post!

This is also something I have never experienced. I noticed the black stems on some of the bare-root roses I planted last fall. Oddly, mainly on the roses from one particular vender!

I think I have learnt my lesson - I went around with the bleach bottle today and got rid of everything that looked iffy but sadly, I think five of the roses are goners!

Could it be that the fungus came in with the roses and that I helped spread it when I pruned???

Spores for various cankers, and especially botrytis, are already present in probably every rose garden and are airborne.

Your welcome Sutekesh. I was thinking the same thing, I was pruning from bush to bush and probably infected them. I did wipe my pruners with vinegar and rubbing alcohol but not all the time. Now that I think about it, it started with my Golden Showers. I thought it was odd that all the canes were black as ash. But like I said, I lost about 5 plants which isn't too bad. I am going to give it one more week and see if it bounces back.

Just curious, will it stay in the soil? I plan to replant another rose in the same spot but remove the existing soil. Is that effective enough?

Cynthia, calling this "the Black Finger of Death" is very appropriate! And I am definitely going to be more vigilant from now on. I just can't believe how quickly it spreads!

Well I must have spend at least 3 hours outside today trying to finish my rose plantings. Your assessment is right Nippstress. I originally thought my Tropicana had died. I digged it up and lord behold, 4 new canes popping up. Unfortunately I must have damaged two of them. I just transplanted it somewhere hoping it will survive. I hope I didn't kill it...lol. I will wait till June then to see if Peace and Ingrid Bergman survived.

Good news about your Tropicana, JJ - it's always nice when roses surprise us by surviving. I expect it'll be OK with the digging. If you'd actually planned to transplant it, now would be a good time, and as long as there's one surviving growth point it's likely good to go. Just make sure that growth isn't coming from below the graft, if it's grafted, or you have a rootstock rather than Tropicana growing.
Yep, sutekesh - I have a separate spot in my records for the Black Finger of Death, and it's almost entirely filled by bare root plants. I think they contract something by hanging around the supply centers before they reach cold zones, so we're at more risk for less than healthy canes in general. Still, my roses from Palatine were absolutely clean and just at the right time for my zone.

Cynthia

"something by hanging around the supply centers before they reach cold zones",

On two roses, I think it was introduced by the machine harvest that first chopped all the roses in a field to a certain height. At that height the problem was spread from other roses in the field. Because on some, it started at the outermost cut.

On others, it emerged as big almost-cartoon-like black circular features down on the canes, not in their first year. This happened with roses from two different suppliers, neither of whom had provided the roses in the preceeding paragraph.

I do like the phrase black finger of death, but I hope by discussing this and the misery it is, that more of us can stop it at the surficial blob stage.

Ann

HI Ann
Thanks for the gentle correction of my assumption. It definitely seems to come from something other than my yard, but you're right that I don't know whether it is from the seller or the original rose grower. Certainly both companies for whom I've had the canker issues this year get their roses from another growing source, and that presumably is where the problem starts. Given the advanced state of progression from there, I still think similarly bad growing conditions will look worse by the time they arrive in cold zones after storage, but in all likelihood the problem began somewhere other than at the rose company. It has just had longer to fester by the time it gets to me, as witness a few photos of this year's crop. Any wonder these roses are already dead, after only a few weeks in the ground? I'd expect this look from body bag roses, since you take your chances there, but not good quality bareroots.

As I've said, the company has been great to replace these, but it's a shame about the treatment at the source. Hopefully they can fine the growers for these poor quality bands they received. Here are a few of the scarier ones, just after unpacking from the boxes.

And a split cane for good measure, also pruned down to nubbins.

Regardless, I like Ann's suggestion to stop this as far as possible at the "superficial blob" stage. Four of the badly cankered roses are clearly dead, but not Cinnamon Dolce (yet) who I immediately denuded of all her canes, and she seems to have decided to forgive me and regrow from the graft. Others that LOOKED fine after pruning, have had that progressive Black Finger of Death that so very quickly gets beyond me as soon as my back is turned.

Cynthia

Yea, I would be very disappointed to receive roses in that condition but at least they will replace it. But since they are living things, it happens. Good luck and please update for us on the new shipment.