Rosa Glauca is in a sulk !

Last year , in the Spring, I purchased a "Rosa Glauca " from my local plant nursery. I planted it straight out in a sunny, well drained spot in chalky soil and it seemed to do quite well, showing lovely purple leaves & red stems. The flowers were small but pretty. This year it has done nothing ! It just sits there, with red spindly branches and a dried out leaf at the end, and looks as though it is having a big sulk. I gave it a feed with rose feed in the spring and again last week at the same time as I fed the "Gertrude Jekyll"after it's 1st flush but it hasn't responded at all.Should I persevere with it or give it up as a lost cause ? Any help very gratefully received!

 

I see your problem,an infestation of bluebirds.
Seriously though,presumably the stems are green? ie,give one of the lower stems a light scrape to reveal live or dead tissue.

 

The lower stems are a dark brown and when I scrape them they look a light brown (caramel colour ), same with the red branches. Where I have used the secateurs to cut back to just above an out growing bud, the inside of the branch looks quite creamy coloured. The green colour on the main stems is some sort of algae ?

 

You're right,doesn't look good.
My usual course of action in these circumstances is to cut the main stems down to six inches or so,to any outward facing buds.
It may regenerate new growth from the base or higher buds,or it may just give up.
Either way it's got,as they say,two chances.
But as you were prepared to bin it anyway,it's gotta be worth a shot.

 

Thanks wiseoldowl and Coalthief ( ! )I'll do as you both suggest, cut it down, untie it and keep my fingers crossed. I was trying to grow it as a standard as I had seen it in a garden like that and thought it looked beautiful but maybe it's not meant to be.