I don't know what it is but lots of my canes have it as well.

Plants don't seem to be affected by it.

I could be remembering incorrectly but I thought someone brought this up last year and the general consensus was cold related and wouldn’t damage the plant

” I noticed that last year and they all seemed to grow normally”

”SM grew three times bigger than the previous year and reached 7’ high”

”Because the infected area …”

This gets brought up every, it seems like. I would ignore it (that's what I do), and wait until April or even later, and seen how it's doing. Most of the time it goes away. Diane

Thanks you all. That's what I did last year - ignore it. It caught my attention because it not only didn't disappear but also spreaded more. I found an old thread on Houzz and someone there suggested it could be canker when it developed, so I ask it again. I apologize if the same topic annoys you. I think I'll "wait and see" again. I do hope it's only a cold damage.

This is another picture of SM. It showed the oldest stem has totally become purple (not woody), but it somehow produced several young stems last season.

BTW, rifis you're so funny! LOL

Usually this doesn't spread in my garden, so now I'm not so sure about ignoring it. There is both fungal canker and bacterial canker. About 15 years ago, Boise had an epidemic of bacterial cane canker in roses. I had just a little of it, on a few roses. I pruned them way back. The Idaho horticulturalist at the time recommended Phyton to treat bacterial cane canker. This is not an insecticide, but copper based, I believe. I recommended that Trish (titian in Australia) try the Phyton for her long term rose sickness. It seemed to help on some of her roses and not on others. Diane

OK, there are now two Phytons--27 for ornamentals, and 35 that can be used on food crops. Phyton is a bacteriocide and a fungicide. Diane

Diane, thank you so much for the info. I'll look into it. If things don't get better in the upcoming season, I'll probably apply it.

I hope I can speak for everyone when I say it doesn’t annoy us. We are here to help each other out!

Not even one bit annoyed Feiy. That is why we are here.

In the last photo, that is a very striking purple.

It, and the juxtaposed green, look like popsicle colors.

Cannot malcom manners be put on retainer here?