Rugosas do not like to be sprayed. The leaves will dry or discolor, turn crispy and fall off.
Your's is normally very hardy so only requires pruning of dead cane tips or damaged canes.
Deadheading will promote more flowering throughout the summer but many rugosas don't repeat as well as hybrid teas, floribundas, and many shrub types.
It's rated hardy to zone 3b and is very disease resistant. During years when blackspot pressure is great the lower portions of rugosa canes can get bare by summers end.
I have a Moje Hammarberg and so far have not had any disease problems with it.

Karl, thanks so much for being so helpful and for all the great information. :) I'll be taking it all to heart.

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Wendy

Wendy, I don't think you will ever regret your purchase. Most rugosas have an AARS rating of 9 or above, so you made the right choice. I've had a Rosa Rugosa Rubra for over 8 years, and I can't say enough good things about her. She needs no pampering. She does like to be pruned in the spring. If she starts looking a bit straggly, I cut her back severely. If she only has some "stragginess" (a new word!), I selectively cut her (ie, I try to keep her height, and cut the lower branches so she'll fill in nicely, because she is a great privacy bush (over 5 feet). The Japanese beetles love her, so I pick them off every day in July. I do deadhead the blooms, but I don't know if it's necessary. I'm just a nut who doesn't like dead blooms! LOL.
She blooms off and on til the first frost.

So enjoy your "moje"...let us know how she does.

Don't dead-head after the 1st of Sept (or thereabouts), so that the hips will form. moje gets reddish orange hips, which give fall/winter color and birds like them. Rugosa hips, esp those from the basic r.rugosa, are one of the world's top sources of vitamin C. Which is why rose-hip tea is good for you.

When I lived in the Philadelphia area I once had a hedge of R. rugosa for just a few years. I wanted it to last longer than that, but they died. They got some sort of a strange vascular wilt of some sort. I've never seen any other rose do that, & it perplexes me that no one ever seems to note that R. rugosa is sometimes prone to this.

Up here in the Boston area I don't notice this on the R. rugosas, and there are TONS of them up here along the coast. I conclude therefore that if you live inland and have a warm/hot, sticky summer you may have to pay attention to your soil. I know R. rugosa will grow on the dunes of the Jersey Shore (I saw R. rugosa alba doing so at Island Beach State Park back in 1990), but I don't know how well it will do in a heavier soil if you have a warm sticky summer.

well I have moje in clay soil and hot humid summers and it doesn't skip a beat.

You all ROCK! Thanks so much for all the feedback. I must say that besides the heavenly scent, I'm quite smitten with the overall appearance of my new Moje. LOVE the leaves, how bright and structured they are. Upon planting her I learned that I should have definitely worn the gloves, lol.

I'm 20 minutes from the shore, and I did plant her in rich soil - not sandy at all.

What concerns me now is that she's next to Abraham Darby and Huntington Rose, whom I spray regularly, but I don't want to get the spray on Moje since I don't want to burn the leaves. Perhaps I'll use a cardboard shield when I spray the roses next to her.

Thanks again.

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Wendy

I love Rugosas. My Rugosa Rubra does not get BS but Rotes Meer sulks for weeks if he gets a tiny bit of spray. I try very hard not to spray it but I need a tent most times.

Carla