I miss my Love and Peace rose. I lost it this past winter. It just didn’t come back.

It’s always done well through the winter and we had a very mild winter this year so I don’t think that’s why it failed. I think it was diseased.

Last year in the spring I noticed that it had a woody, fungal looking growth just at the soil line. I carefully cut out that growth and removed the soil that had been around it and crossed my fingers. Love and Peace took off like it normally did and I didn’t have any problems at all with it last year.

This year when I saw that it wasn’t starting to come back to life after winter I took at look at it’s base and it seems that a bit of what I’ll call the fungal growth was back but certainly not as bad as the year before. Could this have been the problem that caused it to die?

Does anyone know what kind of disorder, infection or disease I’m talking about? I’d love to learn more about it. You see, once I dig up Love and Peace I want to plant a new rose in the same area. I don’t want the new rose to get sick though if whatever might have killed Love and Peace is still in the soil.

Any ideas?