Roses vary so much when sent by different sellers and by variety. Posting pictures can help you get feedback if what you get is acceptable. I have received some very small pathetic looking own root roses that grew into wonderful plants. They just needed some babysitting in a pot before they went in the ground. Some of the best roses are sold this way and it can turn out just great.

Bare root grafted roses can look pretty beat up when you receive them and still turn out great. You have to get used to the mail order approach. Don't be discouraged by these "ugly ducklings".

Off topic for you rose potters/container planters. Do you guys pot them for ease of or just to get them going or more just due to lack of space in dirt. I'm guilty of potting up shrubs sometimes and then planting them later as they were not of ~full size~ for the intended garden space. My pots are fabric pots and every plant I've put them in loves the ~air~ it gets on the entire perimeter.

When I look at the pics of what bare roots look like on roses, it looks like the roots start out around 8-10 inches. I don't think it would even work in my 20G pots, as the depth on thoses is roughly around 12" in height

I don't know about your rootstocks but over here in England we can prune ours back by as much as one half, even more, in order to fit into a planting hole or a container better... it's said to stimulate the roots but all I know is it makes the job a whole lot easier... I think nothing of pruning those long roots right back... some nurseries already do it before sending out, others leave them very long indeed...

I'm talking of grafted bare roots here, on a wild rose rootstock, not own root bare root... I wouldn't prune those personally...

a1an, I think many here pot small plants to grow them up before putting them in the ground. With big grafted roses it would be easier to plant them in the ground directly rather than having to go through the planting process twice.