I use birds to get rid of aphids. We have resident superb fairy wrens. They do a great job.
If the rose can't resist or cope with blackspot it's got no place in my garden! I try to keep garden hygiene not too bad, I mulch fairly thickly and don't use overhead watering. Come what may, I just won't spray, aside from the environmental side of things I just don't have that sort of time to apply to it. I haven't found this policy to be too much of a problem. Even Julia's rose does pretty well on the flower production front here without spraying.

Greg I feel for you, I know just what you mean its a battle here to get rid of anything, I had the worst growing season for roses last year, I tried the milk and water thing, and nothing worked for the black spot. I removed the leaves as soon as I seen them, even that did not work, so this year I went the other way the dreaded chemical way.

Most of my roses are standards except for some carpet roses and climbers I have only two bush roses and they do not get any overhead watering, the dew is so heavy every morning it would be the same as. I spray with Triforine every 10 days and it will soon be down to 7 days and they are very thickly mulched with Lucerne or Sugar Cane Mulch. Here are some of the Organic ways to help with your problem.

Do not grow any annuals or smaller plants underneath your roses.Try and decrease the humidity around the plant as much as possible by spacing them further apart. Do not plant up against a wall where circulation is minimal. Do not water late in the afternoon. Pick up and burn diseased leaves.

I will not spray for Aphids and believe me I get heaps, so I spend a fair bit of time taking them off by hand, thank goodness I have only 34 plants, and everytime I see a Ladybird I take it over to the roses. If you have to use something I believe Confidor is the way to go, but as I have never used it I cannot advise you.

Today I found two little green frogs on the Hibiscus and that made me very happy as I was worried that the spraying of the roses would make them want to live somewhere else but it seems they still like my garden.

Have a look at the link below It is worth a try as its will get rid of both your problems if it works. Cheers...MM.

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic control for Black Spot.

I'm grateful for that link, too, Mistymorn, and have copied the recipe down to try. From the start of this season's growth I have been religiously applying the milk solution preventative but nevertheless black spot is getting underway. I needed another option.

Hi everyone
Misty I note with interest what you said about the frogs.So time ago I had a crop of anthuriums in which thrips were a problem each season.At this stage safe,effective sprays were harder to come by and lot's of nasty chemicals were trialled in order to achieve control over these little blighters.Some examples were dimethoate(rogor),omethoate,endosulphan,disulphoton.Despite this appalling toxic regime hundreds of little frogs started living within the foliage of the plants. First just a few, then hundreds.Over the years they could be seen jumping about in the plants whenever I sprayed.The sprays would get all over the poor little critters.And yet in all that time (9 years) I never saw one dead frog.
Now I would be the last one to recommend we use chemicals such as these (gives me the shakes just thinking about them nowdays) and I won't use anything unless there's a significant benefit but it makes me wonder just how much truth there is in claims regarding the lethal effects of such substances on our little green(brown,yellow etc.) friends.
Thrip

Hi Thrip. Yes sometimes I wonder too: SORRY for hogging your thread Greg, but when you see these
on your Roses you dont want to spray ( the pics have been on the Gallery before )....MM
Litoria fallax ( Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog ) on "Lovely Lady"
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How gorgeous is that!

That is fantastic! I would be transported on clouds of joy if I could have that in my garden. So far, the striped marsh frogs breeding in the pond have had to suffice.

What a fantastic little frog, I just love the pink he's put on to match the rose, or is that just a quirk of the web? I fantasise stealing some frogs from down by the railway line as I listen to them calling when we walk along to our car in the dark each evening (of course I wouldn't do that, but oh how I wish for more varieties of frogs here...I must read the attracting frogs book again..perhaps I need to do more to make this a nice home for them...).

I don't spray for blackspot or aphids either. A lot of my roses don't get effected much by BS and those that do get over it alright without my doing anything. I just put up with it. A variety of birds and other predators keep the aphis down. I have ladybirds, praying mantis, hoverflys and a little paratising wasp that lays its eggs inside aphids. The wasp is quite active at the moment.
Vivienne

Here is a link that might be useful: Apid mummies

I have seen a few ladybirds around but have heaps of parasitic wasps also and lots of those aphid mummies. I will not spray for aphids, I squish a few with my fingers from time to time, but the rest I leave for the predators.
Never spray for blackspot, but if I get the urge I sometimes spray the foliage with an organic product called Fruit Care which is a tonic of sorts or some fish emulsion or liquid seaweed.

Some roses rarely get black spot and, some are rarely without it. Some roses are devastated by black spot and, some carry on regardless.
After many years of growing roses the best advice I can give you is to try the various remedies and see what works for you. Get rid of the roses that are the real trouble makers and buy more of the ones which are happy in your garden. Keep your roses as healthy as possible with deep watering, fertiliser and good garden hygiene.
I find summer pruning is essential here in the mountains. It can be hard to cut off all those buds, but if I don't do it and we get some damp weather, with a mist that can hang around for days, my roses will be like sticks by the end of March. If I prune in January I get another flush of flowers through April and May.