I think I'll have to do some investigating underground. The reasons having to do with soil and water conditions would seem not to apply in view of the other roses growing happily in the same beds, but galls on the rose roots could be the problem. I suppose roots from a neighbor's tree could also be the problem. They easily could be affecting only one or two roses in an otherwise unaffected bed.
At least six of them were purchased as bare-root plants from a local nursery on the same day 30 years ago. That's what made me suspect that they might have reached the end of their "service life."
A virus is a distinct possibility. I think Lady X is still available from a few places, but I haven't seen Baby Talk, Pillow Talk, Mighty Mouse, or Night Time for sale at a nursery in decades. They may all have died out by now.
