By Nancy Brachey
McClatchy Newspapers

Q: I have a rose bush that I planted several months ago. I bought it as just the root ball with minimum amount of soil around it and the stems at the top of the root ball had been cut off. After planting the rose everything was green for awhile. One of the trimmed stems started a shoot and it has leaves on it, but suddenly all the stems started turning black. I’m afraid the whole thing will die, but none of my roses has acted like this before. What would turn stems that had been green for months suddenly black? Can I save this rose?

A: It remains to be seen whether this rose will survive. It is likely to have a problem called canker. A range of disease organisms cause this problem, which shows up as you describe in blackened stems. You must cut these stems back to healthy green tissue now and give the plant time to grow out. Your rose will require TLC with good watering and rose fertilizer while attempting this comeback.