I swear just a few days ago this rose looked a little under the weather, but with the summer weather here it just looked about normal for this time of year. Today I went out and this is what I found. I felt the plant and it had a slightly slimy feel to it, so I just jerked up the whole thing. Almost no roots to it, and almost completely black looking.

Dry rot? No, seriously, I have no idea. I hope someone has an answer.

Did you ever figure out what happened, Larry? Looks like a serious case of poisoning. Could someone have sprayed it with Roundup Brush Killer?

zuzu, no I never did figure it out. I talked to my neighbor about her poisoning her rose bed right across the fence from mine. It is just neglected and really overgrown with weeds (briars, and chamberbitter mostly). We discussed her spraying from my side over into her side , or using large sheets of cardboard to block the spray when she does decide to spray(maybe a combination of the two). But, nothing has been sprayed yet (all the weeds are still healthy over on her side).
I have seriously thought of volunteering to just go over there and pull all the weeds, and I wouldn't mind that at all, but her husband has installed little drip emitters all throughout the bed (I think that is one reason they failed to weed properly and it it get out of hand.) I think I still may offer to clean the bed out if they will just remove the drip system first.