E C: sorry about your rose plant. could it be that the root was damaged? I lost 6~7 roses last winter because moles dig them out of ground. Just try to lift the plant a bit and feel if it is loose?

Thank you for the response! I haven't pulled at it yet to find out, it's behind some other by so a bit hard to get to, and it was 105f out today so I did my best to stay indoors. I'll give that a try though next time I do go out. I don't think I've ever seen evidence of moles in my yard though, is there anything else that can do that?

I got out there and checked it this morning. It isn't loose at all, it's firmly rooted, but some of the canes look bad at the base I think? I am not experienced enough to know if this is normal or not.

The base gives me hope. That looks pretty good.

Is there a watering issue with the one plant? Has an emitter clogged?

lack of water was also my first thought. Could you poke around the circumference of the plant and confirm the soil is moist and easy to penetrate? I always find patches of my garden where the water simply has not soaked in. I spend an enormous amount of time making sure that every plant gets its water.

Checking the emitter is the first thing I thought to do, it seems to be working properly, and my soil seems to be moist enough. Perhaps I let it go too long without water at some point and that damage showed up later? I don't think I did, and the other roses on the same schedule seem ok, but I don't know what else could be happening. I am glad the base looks good to you, thanks for letting me know that's ok!

Any chance of stem girdler? Does the damage go all the way to the bottom?

One cane is damaged all the way to the base, but I don't think I see anything restricting it. How would I know if it has stem girdler?

There would be a thick area on the cane and it dies above that thickened area.

I don't see anything like that, fortunately. I also looked up stem girdler, and its range doesn't appear to reach Arkansas if I'm reading what I found correctly, though I know pests and diseases can certainly be found outside their official range sometimes.

We just had a ton of rain, and I have rechecked the water lines, so now all there really is to do is watch the rose and see if it gets worse I suppose.

Thank you everyone for your help!

just to update, unfortunately the rose continued to die, even after I sprayed it and pruned put the dead growth quite a bit below the blackening areas. I'm pretty sure it's completely dead now, so I can only guess this was some kind of disease after all. I know the blossoms appeared to have botrytis spots in spring, can that eventually kill a bush? If I see no life after a while, I'll dig it up and check the roots to see if I can spot anything else that might have been wrong. Thanks again for everyone's help!

Do let us know what the roots looked like and if the soil is dry. I would dig it up now. It is not coming back from this.