JR -- I believe you will find that most Old Roses are sold on their own roots.
I know you guys in Florida have problems with ?soil? but I think most Teas and Chinas do fine in Florida on their own roots.

In your quadrant of the country, probably Roses Unlimited and/or Ashdown would be good bets, and they are both used to selling to Floridians.

Jeri

I have to cheer for a lovely nursery right here in my "backyard" in Oregon.(We living in Jacksonville, about 20 minutes from this nursery). It's called Rogue Valley roses (www.roguevalleyroses.com), owned and operated by Janet Inada. I have over 300 roses, and most have come from her nursery. Her site is very easy to navigate as well, and a feature I really like on Rogue's sie, is that you can see a picture of the rose, and then larger of the bush to see an idea of its growing habit.
(No, I don't own stock in Janet's nursery :-) ...I just love it!!)

Check out "High Country Roses" in Jensen, Utah. Excellent quality. Also very nice people to do business with.
All "Own Root".

A lot depends on your soil, meaning that you should find out if fortuniana rootstock is a 'must' in your area or not. If you need fortuniana grafted roses you may give up on getting roses bareroot. A few OGRs like Chinas do OK ownroot even in nematode infested soils in Florida.

There are a few vendors in Canada who have a great number of OGRs and would ship you bare root roses in late fall or early winter then they resume shipping in February - both seasons would be OK in your climate to plant; but the real question is if their roses grafted on multiflora work in your soil or not.

There are many great nurseries that offer a great selection of OGRs ownroot and you can plant potted roses any time.

Thanks much for all your suggestions.

I am currently growing Belinda's Dream, Grus un Achen and Claire Matin, plus some unnamed minis and an unnamed yellow tea. All of these were from pots.

I apologize for my ignorance, but what is a fortuniana grafted rose?

Fortuniana is a rootstock that is resistant to the nematodes in hot, sandy soil. Rose producers in Florida all use it, and I understand J&P has produced some roses on fort. for the Florida market. They are normally sold in pots. Roses on multiflora will only last one season in nematode-infested soil. The typical California-produced roses are on Dr. Huey rootstock, which is good for several years. Roses on fortuniana are good indefinitely. Some garden centers will have roses on fortuniana, but Dr. Huey will be more common.

Ungrafted or own-root roses may be OK or not, depending on the variety.

Call your county extension agent and ask, but generally if your yard is sandy, you need fortuniana except for china roses and some others on their own roots.

I may be in luck -- we're not sandy at all. Actually, pretty nice garden dirt, but I still amend with homemade compost.

I will double check with the extension office to be sure.

Thanks!
JR

J&P fortuniana grafted roses are usually sold in blue pots (as opposed to black pots for Dr. Huey) at garden centers. However, I didn't see many old garden roses in those blue pots. If you order from J&P directly, you may get a few OGRs own root and those own roots are huge, almost unbelievable that they are own root. These roses called "New Generation" roses but the name only means that they are not grafted. If your soil can handle own roots, you may want to check J&P what they offer.
Few big growers offer old garden roses grafted. In Florida, coolroses.com offers old garden roses grafted on fortuniana. If Dr. Huey is OK for you, Roses of Yesterday and Today sells a big variety of roses both bare root and potted, most probably grafted on Dr. Huey.