Looking at rain maps for the area it could be 50% to 200% higher than that which is recorded for Honolulu it seems very variable year to year.

Frankly irrigation cannot really be set with any consistency up against the mountain (about 2300 ft), some months the garden soil may never need irrigation, or at least very little and in others it may need it two to three times a week and it may not necessarily follow that average low rainfall month may be low, or the high month be high. As the old saying goes 0 F 50% of the time and 140 F 50% of the time gives one an average temperature of 70 F, so it is with our rainfall. It may be very heavy for two hours, with the sun shining as it comes in at an angle of 60 degrees due to the wind, or it may drizzle on and off all day.

I do not know if this would play into whether or not one should stop fertilizing, but it is great for blackspot.

Use a rain gauge and keep a rain diary. For your roses in pots, remember that mature plants may shed half or more of the rainfall outside of the pot. In your climate with clay-based soil, 1" a week should be enough, or a little more in particularly hot sunny weather, a little less with highs below 80.

Your temperatures favor good growth of roses year around. Personally I don't believe in trying to force modern roses into dormancy. The China-rose ancestry wants to grow and bloom year around, and roses in Florida do just that. (I have some limited experience with Florida gardening.)

Malcolm Manners, probably the leading expert on roses in Florida, fertilizes year around, but at 1/2 normal for November through January. In Lakeland where he is, they have a few light frosts per year and possibly one hard freeze that injures growing tips-- usually not the latter.

michaelg,

Well no frosts or freezes here so maybe 3/4 fertilizer, winter temps in the day are typically 72 F to 75 F.

Still great for blackspot though , but I use protectorants most of the time, on those roses that are supposed to very resistant but are not here, some varieties are free and require no spraying.

Thank you for your help.

I sprinkle some alfalfa pellets around the bushes and pile on horse manure once or hopefully twice a year. If i am fertilizing the fruit trees and have some leftovers i broadcast a little around the roses. Oh, and i do amend the planting hole when they first get set out. Seems to work out OK.

The roses did look and bloom better with more water but they are doing OK this year with whatever falls from the sky. They enjoyed the soaking those last hurricane remnants provided, hope you got some of that.

The recommended pruning time for roses here is January so you might want withhold fertilizer prior to that if you prune.

Now i gotta know, which roses do you find to be blackspot resistant? i haven't found many.

Here is a link to the Honolulu Rose Society in case you haven't seen it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Honolulu Rose Society

My assumption is this might be close to South Florida's needs

At 2400' you probably don't have the heat that S. Florida has. It makes a difference in my garden. Most zone maps are zoned for winter lows. Check out the link to see how different your heat zone is if you're curious.

Here is a link that might be useful: AHS Heat Map