Black stuff on Ascocenda roots

[JennS]

I have a recently purchased Ascocenda Princess Mikasa. It was almost finished blooming when I got it with only 3 flowers left on the stalk. They looked pretty good, but strangely the stalk was dying and it was dying from the end attached to the plant, not the tip of the shoot. I thought that was strange because usually mine wait for the flowers to fall off then brown from the tip backwards. This one was brown the other way with flowers still attached. The roots also have some black mossy type stuff on some of the roots. It feels like moss or something, but the color is a bit disturbing. The roots appear otherwise healthy and the plant looks good too. Any thoughts???