Sounds like galls on the roots. If so, that's why your roses aren't doing well. Water the soil well before removing from the pots. The soil will fall away easier when wet. Wash all remaining soil off and remove all the bulbous, knobby-like, crunchy material and dispose of it along with the soil. Soak the now bare root roses overnight in a five gallon bucket of water to which you've added a cup of bleach.
This should kill any remaining gall you may have missed. Prune back the top so it equals the size of the remaining roots. Use good, new potting soil and plant the next day after the overnight soak.

Yes, now that you mention it they did look like galls. What is the cause of this? Both plants had it. Thanks for your advice!

Root gall is a major problem in some of our soils. Short of using streptomycin on the plant, there is no cure. Organic soils may supress the galls to some extent.

IF they were mine, I'd sterilize my secateurs thoroughly and then use a hose on the roots to remove all the soils, then I'd cut back at least a couple of inches above each gall. Then repot in totally new soil.

Agrobacterium tumefaciens

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/GARDEN/PLANTS/DISEASES/crowngall.html

There's a chemical called Gallex that kills the disease agent. Solarization of soil in hot dry weather is recommended. Further information here:

Here is a link that might be useful: gall disease

Thanks for the info. I am curious how my roses, which are container roses, could get this disease.

I have started the process of removing infected material and it is very, very time consuming. I have done 4 of my 17 roses so far. One of them had so much bad tissue that there's not much left in the way of healthy roots and all of them had about as much in the way of diseased root as healthy roots.

I removed all the soil and as much infected root as possible. I then dipped the roots in a strong bleach solution before soaking overnight in a weak bleach solution. I then repotted in new soil.

So far the roses look okay. In my climate, the buds were starting to swell and they still are. I am curious how many will survive this treatment. It's pretty drastic. Even if they do, my guess is they will eventually become infected again. It would've been easier to replace the plants, but I am too soft-hearted with my roses to toss them out after so many years.

A. tumefaciens can be stystemic in plants, depending on the soils they were grown in before they were barerooted for sale.

I don't know if there is a website about the sterilization of the soils at Wasco, but I had found some papers on the net about allowing Bromoforming of the soils- the papers were granting variances to do the bromoform which had been outlawed several years earlier.

Just do the best you can. I was able to save a few of mine doing just what others said here. Be sure to sterlilze your tools after the surgery. You might also try rooting cuttings this summer and into fall in case the galls come back. Also be sure to put something around the pots to shade them from the sun. A nurseyman said that you can lose up to a third of good roots in the container where the sun hits it day after day cooking the roots. He marks his pots with a stake so they don't get turned and cook the rest of the roots. I just put my pots in larger pots with bark in between but if you can't do that then you might try wrapping something around them to keep the sun off.