I'm not telling you what to do, but....if it were my rose I'd leave it alone. Weird spots and areas often go away. I ignore a lot of stuff and the rose fights it off. But it's your call. Good luck. Diane

I'd prune, just because I've had that problem (different type though), and lost loads of roses. And disinfect the secateurs, which I'm sure you would do anyway. Ditto the good luck. Trish

Can you prune the canker to right above where the other cane joins it? That is what I would do.

Are you sure it's canker, and that it's spreading? What is the rest of the plant like; that is, how many other canes do you have on it? Have you tried to scrape a bit of the brown off gently to see whether it's only on the surface? If it goes deeper than the surface, if you're sure it's spreading,if the plant has enough substantial growth in general,I'd say cut it off. Can you post a closer-up picture of the cane in question ?

I tend to prune those out too, as I don't like the look of it...

I'd prune, that stem connected to the canker is not going to be as vigorous. If you prune the rose is going to send up healthier growth.

I can't tell for sure from your photo, but is that a borer hole in the middle of the cut end of the dead cane portion in question?

If it is, removing the damaged section to live, good growth will produce and expose a fresh cut that will be vulnerable to future borer damage that will need to be addressed. Most folks who have borer problems seal fresh cut ends to prevent new borer invasions.

If the dead section is due to borer damage, the soon to emerge insect may still be in the stem or it may be old borer damage and the resident insect is long gone. The stem will continue to die down to the point where the insect's tunnel terminates. Some borer tunnels go down as far as the crown!

Everything has to be cut back to tunnel free good wood then the cut end sealed.

If that dark spot in the photo is not a borer hole, I do what Marlorena does, cut back by increments to good, white pith wood. All growth above that point is sacrificed.

I share the thought that Moses had about the possible hole in the cane. I would also prune to good wood. If the greener stem is growing from the darkened area it will not receive the nutrition it needs. The rose will replace the growth with new wood that will be healthier.

I'm wondering about differences between dry and wet humid climates. Seems that what you do may depend on where you live. Where I live, to leave on any canker is just asking for it to spread.

I agree with Seil that it looks like the stub in the blue box is dying back to the supporting cane, as the rose figured it had lost that cane and is "giving up on it". I don't see anything spreading into the supporting cane, so it's not likely to be a huge issue to prune it or not. However, the rose isn't going to recover in that particular cane, so there's no loss in taking off that dead wood. You might avoid cutting into your good cane and keep an eye on it to make sure it isn't indeed canker, but to me it just looks like a discarded cane stub and can be pruned off at your leisure.

Cynthia

If you are looking to seal off any cuts you make to prevent borer damage, you could use regular Elmers Glue and put a drop of the tip every time you cut back to seal it..Works like a charm for me...

I have had canes like this I sometimes leave alone and they do alright. I have pruned some off too. Of course, we would love all our canes to look perfect.

Hi all, thank you all for the comments. I'm posting more photos, hoping they are a lot clearer to see. I don't want to loose this long cane on the left side but if the canker spreads to the next joining cane, then I will have to chop it off. I was wondering if that is the "bud eye" just below the canker in the 1stpic. Maybe if I cut it there it will sprout new cane? But the wood looks woody and old not sure whether it will sprout new growth. This rose is "Claire Rose" - David Austin's older variety and I wanted to let it grow.

Those are better photos for us all to see, thanks for taking the trouble here.

If mine, I would still cut that out, to just above that bud eye you see below the black. I can see you have quite a large shrub with lots of canes, so I figure that I could do without that one and I probably wouldn't miss it too much, however saying that, I've left those alone on bushes where I couldn't be bothered, or too difficult to access, and they seemed to do just fine until a later moment when I got around to it... but yours is quite easy to access, so that would irritate me to distraction I'm afraid [fussy]...

Your call on this really...

I agree with Marlorena after seeing the more detailed photo - I'd cut off below that dark cane at a junction with the next cane branching off. You have a lot of other canes to work with so why leave something that might cause you more cane loss down the road? Roses are tough - they can handle things like pruning just fine.

Cynthia

I agree with both of these ladies; you've got plenty of plant there. If you remove it, you'll eliminate a possible source of future trouble, and may not even hardly note it's absence.