My advice, don't buy them there at all. There are better places to purchase your roses. Check out some of the feedback on them from former customers. I myself, like the ownroot roses, which will NEVER be bareroot roses. If you decide on bareroot roses, just make sure to soak them in a bucket of water overnight, and plant them with the crown or bud union at least a few inches underground. Ownroot roses are good in that they don't have a crown to protect, but I would still plant them a few inches lower in the ground than they were in the pot.
They are probably both sold out in a lot of places now, but you may be able to pick them up for next season at S &W Greenhouse.

Here is a link that might be useful: S & W Greenhouse

J&P's potted roses are shipped in 6-inch containers, which probably means that roots have been pruned pretty drastically. Personally, I'd go with the bareroot option. When do rose gardeners usually plant in your zone? If you are facing several more weeks until ideal planting time, & if J&P is going to ship right away, the potted roses would be easier to maintain until you can get them into the ground.

'Aromatherapy' seems to get mixed reviews & I've not tried it. PJPII, OTOH, has received very positive comment from many quarters. I got one the first year it was available & am adding a second one this season. It's a lovely rose with great fragrance. If you want to take advantage of the sale & avoid waiting a year to purchase your roses, I'd encourage you to go ahead & order from J&P. They aren't my first choice for bareroots, but there are suppliers having reputations that are FAR worse.

You can ask J&P to hold the roses until it is time to plant them so don't worry about that part of it. Own root roses can be bareroot, they aren't necessarily container-only. I'd only do the containers if you don't think you can plant them when you get them since the containers are likely going to be smaller than the bareroots. J&P's bareroots did well for me last time I ordered from them, but that was before the change in ownership.

Since Athena says it's been a very long time since she ordered anything from J & P, she's sure to be unfamiliar with any conditions attached to this free shipping promotional J & P is now offering. I'd encourage you to check to make sure that you can get a shipping date that makes sense for your conditions.

Also, just in case there's any confusion, the two varieties you're interested in are available from J & P only as ownroots. Whether you order them as bareroots or in containers, the roses shipped to you will be ownroot roses.

I think it has been proven J and P are iffy most of the time. Still, it is true some places are worse..but many more or way better. Let us know how you do!

There is a lot of controversy on this subject, own root vs grafted. Now to make that clear, potted roses may be either own root or grafted so it is important to make sure which one you would be getting. Then there is the question of where you live in Z4. I live in the NE. In my Zone most knowledgeable rose growers buy from one of the Canadian sources which ship grafted roses on multiflora. J&P supposedly grafts on Dr. Huey which seems to work fine in most of the US but in colder Zones multiflora is the choice.

Now here is where the controversy begins. According to buyers and growers of own root roses they are better because when the top is frozen they will still regrow as the intended variety. Maybe true but I've always thought that sellers of own root roses have an intrinsic bias on this subject which I think has more to do with the inherent economics for small sellers of own root roses. Then I wonder why those that supply grafted roses such as Pickering, a large grower, would choose to sell an inferior type of rose. In my own case my experience with both types leans toward grafted on multiflora. Finally the key fact is to choose a hardy rose where winter survival is moot.

The two potted roses (own root) I got from J&P last year are growing like mad and took off like crazy. I got Peppermint Splash and Veteran's honor. BOTH were blooming by October (got them in Sept) and they are noce, large plants even this early in spring here. The PS is putting on buds already....they arrived in 6 inch pots, but HUGE amounts of growth on them. Made the ones from Rogue Valley look like twigs.

If I were you, I would buy container, because by the time you plant you will or should have a nice little rootball. You will not have to build a cone in the planting hole or add the nutrients you would normally add if you were planting bare root. When I plant container roses, I prepare the hole, cut out the bottom of the container, slit up the sides, set in the hole, remove the container parts, and water well. If you want to top dress, you can. Voila! Your rose is in the ground and ready to go.

When you've had some roses die after a particularly hard winter, you may decide to try own root roses. This year, I've decided to buy own root roses from Rogue Valley Roses and Northland Rosarium. It will take a few years for the bands to bloom (they arrive as small plants) but it will be worth it.

I hope your Jackson Perkins roses do well for you. Maybe the best idea would be to try a few different types and see what works best for your area. I think I would order the bare root, as they seem to be a little hardier...at least out here :)

I'd eventually like to try Pope John Paul II too and will probably be getting it from J&P.

I've decided against planting any more grafted plants. I'm not crazy about bareroots either, though I was thinking that in order to get Pope John Paul II it was going to have to be a bareroot plant (but celebrating that they were selling them ownroot now). I'm so glad to find out (on this thread) that J&P do have some ownroots planted in a pot now too; I hadn't seen that anywhere on their website.

I bought a bareroot rose last year through Wayside Gardens that was a J & P rose (Fragrant Wave). It wasn't their fault at all, but apparently the rose had an exceptionally long layover after they shipped it (took more than a week to go about 100 miles!), and the bareroot did arrive all dried out. I promptly called Wayside and they replaced the plant shortly, even though I couldn't be sure the dried-out plant wouldn't live. The replacement was a bit smaller than the original, but still perfectly acceptable--carefully packaged and plenty moist, even though it was shipped directly from California to North Carolina, from J & P, Wayside's sister company.

After ordering but before receiving the replacement, I tripped up on some information from unhappy customers of J&P/Wayside Gardens/Parks Seeds after their merger, so I was nervous about how that order was going to turn out. But it turned out just fine and I'd certainly do business with them again in order to get Pope John Paul II (eventually).

Mary

I have only bought roses from Jackson and Perkins and I couldn't be happier. Their customer service is excellent, I have only had one rose die (which was replaced for free) and the remainder of the roses I bought from them brought me dozens of huge roses last year. I have both own root and grafted and they both survived a normal to mild winter here in NEOhio. I had already ordered some climbers from J and P for this spring and they cheerfully refunded my shipping costs when I called them after receiving a promotional email this weekend. I have both the aromatherapy and Pope John Paul and they are both very good roses. I started them both from bare root last June (late for this part of the country) and they both bloomed into November with wonderful scented blooms. As I write this they are both slowly breaking dormancy and covered with buds. I have never ordered container roses, but I can vouch for the robust nature of both these roses in bare root.

Update: I ordered 3 each of Aromatherapy, Pope John Paul, and April in Paris in bareroot. Took advantage of free shipping offer to get some fragrant roses.

Also wrote J&P Customer Service and learned the following: "The container roses are 1 year old plants, as opposed to the bare root plants that are 2 years old plants. The plants in the containers are 6-10 inches tall and the canes are smaller and thinner looking to the bare root plants. Container roses can take up to one season to catch up to the size of the bare root roses."