A lot depends upon what roses you plan to plant.

Jeri

If you want to grow floribundas, HT or grandiflora that are budded onto a rootstock, I would say, hands down, bareroot. You can find them very cheap locally, and, even mail order, they are a fraction of the cost of a potted plant. Also, I have had much better luck with my bare root plants then anything I've tried potted.

As far as mail order vs local goes--that is a hard one. Sometimes, you have to go mail order, because local nurseries just don't carry what you are looking for. In my experience, David Austin offers fantastic bare root plants. The quality is worth every penny. However, I have paid a fortune for shipping from other venders and the plant I got was similiar to what I would have gotten, locally.

Whatever you decide will be fine. Roses are fun easy to grow.

Linda
http://www.rosesrfun.blogspot.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: David Austin

Well, i'm also a fledgling rose grower, having planted my first "patch" only last year. Not knowing very much about roses, i got mine in potted form when they were blooming so i knew exactly what color and fragrance i was getting. Many people swear bare roots establish more easily, and that may indeed be so. But my potted ones seem to have done ok (and knock wood will continue doing well).

That's just my two coppers ...

Good luck with your new garden! Whichever way you go, you're going to love it ...

What jeri said.

Some roses are only available as own root, usually potted, but Ashdown is doing potless own roots to save on shipping costs (these are NOT bareroots because these plants are actively growing). Some are only available as a (dormant) bareroot. Some are only available via mail order. Others (usually some of the newer HT, floribunda and shrub varieties, and some of the "golden oldie" HTs) can be found locally.

Local stores will have
Boxed/bagged: essentially these are bareroots and should be treated as such (removing all of the packaging, soaking for a min. of 24 hours and planting as per bareroot instructions that can be found on the web).

Potted: Planted in 3- to 5-gallon nursery pots (sometimes larger). Some places get bareroots, pot them up themselves and then sell the potted plant at lots of $$$ markup, some places get them already potted from wholesalers (also called "canners").

Most of the stock found locally in the US is grafted on Dr. Huey rootstock, although you may find some that are own root (I can get some potted rugosas here that are own root).

So, it depends on what you are looking for. (P. S.: Anntn6b knows of some vendors that may be within driving distance of you, I hope she sees this thread.)