Never done this before. A lot of sources says it's okay to plant bareroot roses in the fall in my zone (z7).
My question is, if I plant them say - mid September, do I expect growth to appear and just to be killed by a killing frost in the next month and a half or so? Or, do I expect the canes to stay dormant till spring?

When it comes to roses, Tex, I think of fall planting as something I do in November and early December. I don't know what would happen to roses in your zone at that time, but it's the best possible time here, because it's the rainy season. If I planted something in September, I'd probably have to water it two or three times a day for the first few weeks.

Thanks Zuzu. November makes sense as it will be cold enough let the roses stay dormant. December will be too cold to plant roses here.

Tex,

I tried fall plantings of bare roots for the first time a couple of years ago. Naturally, I mounded the plants with a thick layer of soil to protect them over the winter. When I first uncovered the plants the next spring I was amazed at how many healthy bud shoots there were. But despite how careful I tried to be, they kept breaking off as I removed the soil around them, and I ended up with spindly plants. I'm going to try planting a few again this fall, but I'm going to mound them first with a thick internal layer of peat moss, and an outer layer of soil and mulch. Hopefully that will give them the protection they need, but the peat moss that insulates the new bud shoots should be much easier to remove without breaking the new shoots off.

That's a good idea Mike. I got those 5-gal pails/platic containers from HD or Lowe's that I remove the bottom half.
Usually use those for new plantings so water will be concentrated on the root zone when watering. I was thinking of using them too as ring protection for the bare roots and like what you said, I'll use peat moss and mulch on the top.

That's a good idea, because the solid ring would prevent the peat moss from eroding away over the winter, yet still allow the mound to breath and get moisture. I may try that myself! Thanks for the tip.