Keep the receipt, pot and labels in case they don't survive the winter. You can return them. If you have a smart phone, check the zone rating on the rose online - this site or helpmefind. Local stores frequently sell plants that aren't winter hardy in our zones. Shame on them! It is depressing to dig up dead roses in the spring.
If the rose is a hybrid tea, it is probably grafted. If it says it is grade 1 or grade 1 1/2 it is grafted.
The roses wrapped in paper without soil are called bare root roses. None of my local stores carry them. Both grafted and own root roses can be sold bare root. Mail order nurseries like Edmunds, Jung, etc. sell roses bare root because they are cheaper to ship that way.
The roses in the "body bags" are not likely to do well. The worst of the lot are covered in wax. They bag the lower quality (grade 1 1/2) plants. They also cut off lots of the root mass to fit into the bag. If the bagged rose is really cheap and you really want that variety, it may be worth a try. I have wanted a Don Juan climbing red rose. It is a very common variety, but I haven't found it locally. I planted two bagged roses. I thought the first one I planted was dead so I bought another. Both are sending up canes this year. The two body bag roses were much less expensive than one rose from a mail order company. Perhaps it is a good idea to buy two and pant them close together. If you buy them from a store that offers returns and save the bag you can recoup your losses if they die.
Most hybrid tea roses are grafted. Canes from the fancy varieties are spliced into the roots of a different rose plant. They grade the quality of the grafted plant - grade 1 is best. Grade 1 1/2 is lower quality. This is the way traditional florist roses have been grown. Take a good look at the roots of the dead plants when you remove them. You will probably see the area where the canes were grafted onto the root stock.
Own root roses are grown from cuttings. The whole plant is the same rose. If a harsh winter kills the rose to the ground, it can come back from the roots. Shrub roses like the knockouts, miniature roses, species roses like rugusa roses and many antique roses are grown on their own roots.
I have gotten good own root roses from Chamblee's nursery. Another popular own root nursery is Roses Unlimited. My favorite rose purchased from Chamblee's is 'Honey Sweet'. It is classified as a shrub rose, but it has nice bud vase worthy blooms. It was bred by Dr. Buck who devoted his life to breeding disease resistant, cold hardy roses. The plants they ship are small - about the size of a starter tomato plant. That is typical for many own root rose nurseries. They may take a season to reach the size of the potted big box store roses.
Floribundas are sold own root or grafted. The ones I have seen in the local stores have been own root. Some are fragrant. They are easier to grow than the fussy hybrid teas. The plant produces masses of blooms. I think they look great in the garden.
Clay soil , wet springs and frequent freeze thaw cycles strain grafted roses. I had some roses split at the graft. If you have rocks with your clay like I do - huge rocks, boulders - it is hard to dig deep enough to bury the bud union (the area of the graft). One of my rose gardening friends online (in the rose group on this site) grows roses in Colorado. We both have cold climates, but hers is much drier and typically has more snow cover. Snow cover is good - free winter protection for your roses.. She has had less problems with grafted roses than I have. A fellow gardener in the Poconos grows her roses in raised beds. I can't imagine how many truckloads of topsoil they needed to sculpt their lovely gardens. It is a great option, but beyond my budget.
Most of the roses in the stores are grafted on Dr. Huey root stock. You can buy roses grafted to hardier root stocks from Canadian nurseries such as Pickering and Palentine's. I haven't bought from them, yet.
Queen Elizabeth, a pink grandiflora rose, is doing well for me. I bought it on sale in a pot at a local big box store last year. The canes had minimal die back. It is starting the second year in the garden and is 6' tall. This is a grafted rose, but it is doing very well.
I grow one "Canadian Explorer" rose called William Baffin. What a survivor! It can be grown as a climbing rose or a large shrub. The rose was bred to live in Canada. I don't even have to protect it for the winter (mine is own root). I have seen pictures of a lovely climbing red Canadian rose called Quadra. Neither are fragrant, but they are lovely.
I made a planting of red and red/white roses. I planted Chrysler Imperial. I wasn't impressed with it last year, but it has a bud already. I also planted Ingrid Bergman - it was gorgeous its first year, but the canes died back. I have a bit of fresh growth. I also planted Double Delight and Love. They are doing relatively well. They had significant die back, but fared better than the divas.
For what it is worth, I wish that I had bought a couple of the Romantica hybrid teas last year at Home Depot. The flower form is like the Austin roses, but the plants are bred by a French company. By the time I researched the plants and returned to buy them, they were out of stock!
I have been wanting to grow 'the Fairy'. I haven't seen it locally. It always seems to be out of stock when I look for it online.
