Jim, to be blunt about it, more important than your control measures is your selection of varieties. Most of the people who grow roses organically in the Southeast stick to old teas, chinas, noisettes, old ramblers, albas, polyanthas, rugosas, and a very careful selection of modern roses, including only a few modern bush roses (hybrid tea, floribunda). Even so it is helpful to spray at least occasionally with a low-tox black spot control such as sulfur or an antitranspirant (eg Wilt-Pruf). The use of these is described in the FAQ. Or if you are willing to spray one of these regularly, then you can grow a wider range of roses, but not those that are highly susceptible.

Organic fertilizing is easy and very successful. Organic pest control adequate to protect the health of the plant is not hard if you learn the ways of the enemy. Soap spray and hand picking will handle most of the problems. But to control black spot adequately without synthetic fungicides, you have to cull the herd.

MichaelG,
Thanks for your reply. Since I am growing primarily HTs and am fairly new at this , I guess I will stick to the chem sprays. I do use Mills Magic Mix and Easy Feed. Spider mites have been a real battle this year. JBs have not invaded very much yet. BS is not a real problem yet even with all the moisture.

Jim, I took care of a spider mite infestation one year by using a sharp spray of water. I sprayed two or three days in a row to make sure they were gone. I have never had a problem with them again.

Try feeding your roses alfalfa and sea kelp, along with other organic foods. Keeping the roses healthy helps them fight disease. These things are easy to find, alfala for example, is available in pet stores.

Some people have sucessfully controlled bs with the Cornell Formula.

What are you spraying for specifically?

Jim, I might add that I've grown a good number of bush roses over the years, and the majority of them do OK with regular use of sulfur, which is a very safe material. This year we've had terrible black spot pressure with very frequent overnight wettings. Angel Face is a mess, as usual, but the others are clean to nearly clean. Angel Face is a rose that, if I followed my own counsel, I would replace with another Blueberry Hill. But Angel Face is hard to part with.

Some of the HTs that I've grown successfully using only sulfur-- Granada, Garden Party, Chrysler Imperial, Alec's Red, Double Delight, Savoy Hotel, Elina, Fragrant Memory, Valencia, Sunset Celebration, Sheer Bliss, Vet's Honor, Perfume Delight, Olympiad. (The last two losing about 25% of foliage, but not really impaired.)

Michael,
Thanks again for the info. Jerry Baker who grows organic has a recipe for controlling BS. Recipe is:

Dissolve 1/4 bar of octogan soap in 1 qt. boiling water. To this add 1/4 cup dishwashing detergent. This is to keep it from gelling. Set aside.

When ready to spray add 1 tbs. of this mixture to 1 gal of water. To this add 1 tbs. baking soda and 1 tbs of vegetable oil. Then spray like the dickens. Have not tried it but plan to do so.