I believe my rhododendron has verticillum wilt disease. (spelling?). Can it recover? These two nova zembla have been sick since last summer. The nursery where we purchased them came out in the fall and said that it looked like verticillum wilt disease, and made good on them. We purchased some viburnum to put in their place. Now I am seeing new growth on these rhodies. They still have some totally dead brown complete branches on them. Should I dip some pruners in bleach and prune off all the dead and replant them somewhere? These are not mature plants-they were $70 a piece and are not that big-I can move them if need be. (there are only 4 branches that are alive on the one, and 8-10 branches that are alive on the other.)

As a final note (if someone can comment), we had some Lees Dark Purple rhododendron planted around our house that died of verticillum wilt about 20 years ago. I read somewhere that this disease stays in the soil. Should I just dig these two plants up and discard them? I can try to put pics if anyone wants them. Thank you!