Insect pests and plant disease do not necessarily come around although there are people that have them all the time. Wait and watch for problems and then properly identify what the real problem is, determine if some action to solve that problem is necessary, determine what the least toxic solution to the problem is, apply that solution, and review that.
It is not environmentally responsible to spray highly toxic poisons around to prevent a problem that does not exist, ie as some people suggest as a preventive.

Dan, since you say you are a newbie, you might want to read more about roses. Check out all the rose forums FAQs. You will find that the hybrid tea roses are generally the hardest to grow organically, they were bred to be show roses and for cutting, I beleive, and most "successful" growers have a regular spray program, which is not environmentally frienldy, In my Opinion. If you want to have a garden with some roses, investigate the old garden roses or antique roses or shrub roses. For now, keep your hybrid tea, of course. Generally roses will fight disease best with plenty of sun (at least 6 hrs), and good air circulation and good drainage. you might investigate some organic disease fighting methods, so you'll be ready if you need to use, like soapy solutions for aphids or releasing ladybugs, and I think it is corn meal or something like that for black spot. Over the years, I have just gotten rid of the hard roses and gone to the antiques of which I don't use chemicals. Happy gardening!

BIG Thanks all!
Yes, I have lots of reading to do! I still need to fully comprehend the differences between old garden roses, antique roses, and shrub roses. Two roses came with my home. I know they are not "long stemmed" roses but, could not put an accurate label on them if my life depended on it :)
Thanks again!
dan

The rose seems to be happy and is leafing out quiet well! I even have a couple of buds in the making!!
So far I have not used anything on the rose except manually mashing any uninvited critters that I find on (under) the leaves. I see what looks like an Ant on occasion but, I like to think that it is eating the little critters that I am intent on mashing. :)

It's been my experience that the best way to grow organically is to make sure you have the best possible soil. i.e., lots of nitrogen, potassium, phosphorous and all the normal trace minerals (like magnesium sulphate). You get this by using organic amendments (leaves, hay, mushrooms, manure) and by adding fertilizer. But the soil base itself is much more important than the fertilizer. If your soil is good, your plants will withstand disease, drought, whatever, much better than if the soil is poor.

Use hardwood and leaves (if you have access) from hardwood trees (oak) on top of your soil as mulch.

Amend or cover soil (whichever) with horse manure. (You can add leaves too). Don't go and buy the stuff, what you buy has salt added. Free manure from a horse stable or farm is fabulous, it contains wheat hay, alphalpha etc if the horses are fed well. The manure prevents diseases. It even allows you to replant roses in old rose holes according to Ashdown Roses and to David Stone of Montisfont Abbey of England. (supposedly a no no). I don't bother to let the stuff age. A plant you buy is usually old enough to handle it (except a tiny, newly rooted cutting or "band" like what you get from Heirloom.

If you go to a horse-feed store, you will find wonderful horse alphalfa, cottonseed meal, and a bunch of other stuff that you may want to consider adding. Horse manure is easier and cheaper, unless you have no access or way to transport it.

Roses Unlimiteds website lists the stuff to add to a mix for "perfect" roses. I never find it all, just try for most.

Peat added to the soil is good because then the soil retains the water you gave the roses. My soil is sand, which has no nutrients and too much drainage. But roses need drainage, right? Some soil is all clay, has no drainage, and the roses can drown. So amendments depend on your particular soil.

Spray? I use plain water, believe it or not. It washes off black spot spores. Another supposed no no. Where I live, in the hot, humid south-east coast, is supposed to be the most disease and insect prone place. If I can go without fungicides and insecticides, anyone can.

They say to water at ground level or your roses will be diseased. I think it's a myth to prevent diseases that way. Though watering at the roots is necessary to give the rose a nice, deep watering. (They love water and food!). So do both types of watering. I find that a nice sprinkler shower is appreciated by my roses when the heat index is 110 degrees.

Another way to get rid of disease? Prune out diseased parts and throw away. Presto, disease is gone. Free, and 100% organic. Black spot causes defoliation. So you lose the leaves, and new, clean ones grow back. Not bad at all! I don't ever expect a plant to look perfect, though most of mine are free of black spot. Simply, it is better (to me) to ignore much of what the chemical gardeners try to eradicate. (I sprayed like crazy my first two years. Then I stopped. And my garden naturalized. Predators like spiders and bees eat the leaf eaters, and I have little disease because of healthy soil. Before, it was a chemical dump with no predators and happy leaf eaters and too much disease).

If you like, you can amend the soil with liquid sulphur in the wintertime. (Never when it is warm). It prevents black spot, and you only have to do it about every 5 years. I've done it to about half my plants, but I don't get carried away because it makes the soil very acidic. And my soil already has a ph of 4 naturally. I have to add lime to raise it to the rose preferred number of 6.5, and must add even more lime if I use sulphur. But it is an option.

Rose Tone (from Lowes or wherever) is a nice organic rose food. If they don't have it, you can use Plant Tone for shrubs with no problem. The Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium are the main ingredients and are represented by the numbers 5-3-3 in that brand. You'll notice other brands might be 30-30-30 etc. Those are much stronger. If you bring a nice sample of your soil to your county extension, they can tell you how strong or weak your fertilizer needs to be to grow roses well in your particular soil. Mills Magic is a wonderful, organic food; you can order it from Roses Unlimited, but I wouldnt bother until you have more roses.

Wow! Much too complicated. Let me recap.

Roses need:
Food
Water
Shelter: shelter being the soil.

They also need sun.

Add organics to the soil (especially manure) to shelter and nourish properly.

Use nice fertilizer.

Prune out anything that looks nasty.

Water at roots.

Water overhead.

Simple.

To refine for your personal soil, get a soil test.

Oh yes, and good job on mashing them! Very organic.