It would be a no-brainer for me; I would dead head. If you have new growth coming up then obviously your rose is doing well. I wouldn't be able to stand dead blooms hanging on for aesthetic reasons.

Ingrid

I've read a zillion rose books and articles but I've never heard of this "rule." It makes no sense whatever. With roses that set hips, the plant will be pouring wasted energy into the fruit at the expense of new growth. Just pull off all the spent flowers. What you should not do with small plants is remove stems and leaves unnecessarily. These are needed to fuel growth.

It does seem to go against reason, doesn't it? Bring me the shears!!

Whether you choose to deadhead first year plants or not is really your choice. I always did, because if I liked the blooms, I wanted more, and the way to signal the rose to produce more is to deadhead. It's a matter of preference, I guess, and never seemed to make much difference to my roses.

The only thing I've heard is that colder region people might want to stop deadheading in the late fall. Letting the plants keep their hips would require energy, thereby discouraging new growth that will just get frozen. I don't have a source handy for this, so it may not be true.
That doesn't really apply to you, though, so deadhead away!

Lara

late flowering I dont dead head all the last remaining buds as it is the plant wont be doing much energizing during the colder / winter months I kind of go on the idea get as many blossums as you can druing start to peak floweringg season so you'll get more but why bother dead heading every thing in fall that hip has some powerfull vitamins in it for both human and perhaps the plant