Actually, Ppal and Sue are on track, but what you use, how often you use it to feed a rose depends on your soil and on the rose.
When I started my garden, my soil was totally dead. In other words there was zero organic material in the soil which meant that there were no worms and no soil bacteria to break down manure or compost. Using either would have been of no use to the plants because organic material has to be broken down into a format where the plant can take up the nutrients through reverse osmosis. When the garden was young, I had to use chemical fertilizers for my roses.
I have a friend back east who never feeds any of her plants because she is gardening in very fertile soil.
In other words, what you use to feed your roses depends on your soil.
The thing to remember is that organic fertilizers take time to break down and provide nutrients to the plants. As for chemical fertilizers, you do not need to use a fertilizer especially for roses. As Ralph Moore, an important rose breeder used to say, "Roses can't read." So, if you are using a balanced fertilizer for other plants in your garden, it will probably be just fine for the roses, too.
Some roses are heavy feeders, while others do poorly if they are fed too often with the same food you are feeding your other roses. That's where "it depends on the rose" comes into play.
If you give us a bit more specific information about your garden and the roses you are growing or want to grow, we can give you more specific answers.
Smiles,
Lyn
