If a bulb is blooming right out of the box then chances are it's going to be crooked in its attempt to find a light source. Plant the bulb and once it is given light it should straighten out a bit.. It will naturally lean towards the light so turn it the other way for a few days and it should straighten out somewhat. If it is horribly curved then you may not be able to completely straighten it but it should still bloom for you. If it lives, then next year the stem should grow out straight. Even some well rooted bulbs are phototropic and will need to be turned every few days. If the roots don't look healthy then don't over water it, just plant it in a well drained soil mix, water it in lightly and hope that the roots don't rot. These poor bulbs that struggle to bloom out of the box are very stressed and they do need some extra TLC. Good Luck....Donna☺☺

NHBabs, It was about 5 years old. I purchased it when it was in a 1 gallon pot and it reached 4' from that time to now. It was doing well and had a nice flowering this year. I did find out what the problem was and as gardengal said, it was not fire blight. I brought pictures on my phone to the cooperative extension and they said it was root rot and pointed out all the features that confirm that diagnosis for them. Besides the leaves staying on the shrub, the bark on the trunk peeled away easily and the cambium had turned an orange color. They said if I were to dig up the plant I would find that the soil around and deep into the root ball would be moist and the outer layers of the roots would peel away easily too. Sure enough, after digging up the plant I found this to be the case. I was told not to put any other shrub in that area and to dig out as much as the soil in that area and the surrounding area and dispose of it. Then fill the hole with new topsoil and amendments and don't disturb the area further. Also, they stressed the need to clean equipment and avoid walking all over the rest of the garden if I got some of that soil on my shoes. They said that I can add fungicide to the soil but there is no guarantee that this will get rid of the disease. Since I live in an area where the soil is sandy drainage was not the problem but they think between the excessive heat and the fact that we were getting downpours in between, and I was watering at night to make sure the plants didn't die in the heat that the plant might have gone over the edge with too much of a good thing. I don't think it helped that I also fertilized right after flowering and the plants suffered some light fertilizer burn but nothing major, about 2 months before this. In any event they seemed to recover quickly. I was also advised not to fertilize in the future and the only thing I should be doing if the plants start to look strange, like light colored leaves, was to have the ph checked. Sure is going to look strange without a plant in that area in the future. Looks like I'll have to get creative and add some kind of ornament in that area to balance it out.

I'm quite certain that they are spores of an artillery fungus and the mulch is the culprit. If they used that mulch near any surface, the fungus can release spores that will stick to everything....siding, vehicles, lawn furniture, etc. Artillery Fungus Scroll down to read about artillery fungi or search to find more pictures. Perhaps you can search to find a patch of it in the mulch. EDIT: This type of fungus is not at all harmful to your plants or soil. It's a naturally occuring fungus that feeds solely on dead wood and decaying lumber.

Thanks gardengal for that, I appreciate your candor. An exact id would be nice but not necessary. Close is good enough for me. I should have added more details, like: Zone 3, non-arid, dry-sandy soil, high acidity, shade, sparsely wooded, native land(non farmed or grassy lawn). It appears sporadically. on my two acres, . I will now refer to it as a dewberry!