Start by going to the top of this page where you see a pink "FAQ." There is a lot of information to read there.

You also might make a trip to any botanical gardens in your area to look at the roses.

Lowes & HD roses are fine, but others here may disagree. Pick a healthy-looking plant that is in the sun and has been kept watered.

If you go to helpmefind.com, you can look up the roses which interest you and get some further information. Just remember that a rose might do well for some people or in some areas, but not necessarily in your area.

You might want to go to Antique Roses and ask this question. There are many old fashioned roses that are easy to take care of and some bloom all summer, while others bloom only once, but can be spectacular.

Celeste has lots of roses and lives in the northeast, but a little colder zone. She loves old fashioned roses and there are many people on the forum that will be able to help you. I've decided to start growing gallicas and damasks (once blooming, but wonderful fragrance) and hybrid musks that repeat bloom and are quite charming. Many of the hybrid musks I picked have small blossoms and are perfect for my nieces' fairy garden.

The gallicas (Belle de Crecy) change color as they bloom, from pink to lavender to purple...very cool!

There are many beautiful roses and lots of people love hybrid teas, but if you are zone 7, you could probably grow almost any rose you wished, so jump over and check out some of the pictures. There's one of Belle de Crecy that's beautiful :)

Actually, you should go to a quality nursery and look at their roses, then go to Lowes or HD--then decide where to buy.

Often the exact rose you've decided you want, Belinda's Dream for example, is not available at local nurseries. Then you have to choose something else or mail order.

Your state has some rose gardening clubs where you can get lots of advice about rose varieties that do well in your climate, the best way to prepare your type of soil for planting, how to fertilize, combat pests and so on.

I will put a link to contact information for societies in the Colonial District, and I see at least a couple are in Maryland. Any of these people would be happy to give you free advice appropriate for your area:

Here is a link that might be useful: Rose societies in your area

Mr Lincoln is a great rose for fragrance. The way it grows is straight up like a tall V shape. It is not really a rounded shrub. You must water the roots in the morning , Don't let the leaves get wet. Be careful to avoid Black spot or other diseases which make your leaves fall off.
First year they sleep, second year creep, third they leap.
Sam

Here is a good thread from the Antique Roses forum, List of no spray in Northern VA. When we say "no spray" it means that the roses are relatively disease resistant (to black spot on the east coast) and do not need a regular fungicide treatment.

2. Mister Lincoln is in the hybrid tea class of roses (they look the most like the florist roses). On the east coast, most hybrid teas are succeptible to black spot, and require a regular blackspot treatment. Not easy care by any means.
3 and 4. A soil test would tell you what your soil might need. We could say to add this or that, but it would be good to know what you are starting with before trying to "fix" it. You will read a lot here on this fertilizer or that amendment, but you could do more harm than good. Start slowly. The first season, your roses need sun and water and not much else.
5. No. Many of the roses sold at the "big box" stores are infected with rose mosaic virus. The people at those stores don't know it, the symptoms are not usually evident, and can stay hidden for years. Now, many of us do buy roses at these stores. However, you will find more variety by mail/internet order.

Welcome. There is a lot to learn. Try not to get too overwhelmed. There are a lot of folks in your area who can help.

Pick up the book "Roses for Dummies". It's great! Gives you lots of general rose growing info, and it's very helpful to someone just starting out with roses.

Unfortunately, there are no rose nurseries in Maryland. The closest is Hartwood Roses in Fredericksburg, VA. (a great road trip, but they also ship) They specialize in antique roses, my favorite.

Most people on the forums avoid the big-box stores and order through the mail. Many mail-order nurseries offer bare-root roses which should be planted now in our area. (I am a little west of Baltimore). Since you are still planning, and are a beginner, I would suggest buying potted roses. If you are looking for Belinda's Dream, which has done well for me so far, I'd get it from Chamblees (in TX). Most of their roses are are $9. The shipping costs are high (from anywhere) though. I bought 4 roses from Chamblees last Fall and the shipping was $23!

i second that roses for dummies is great. there is a misconception out there about roses in that they have an unearned reputation for being finnicky and difficult to grow.
this has not been my experience at all and i have only been an enthusiast for three years. i would say the opposite; i have had great success just by researching websites such as this, reading lots of books and talking with master rosarians.
the main thing is to pick appropriate roses for your zone / climate. pick hardy, disease resistant ones over the more exotic, prima donna ones. if you are new to roses, then you want roses to give you a great first impression, so pick tried and true varieties.
this site is a great resource and i have been given invaluable advice over the years. don't be afraid to ask even the silliest of questions; better to ask than to make an error that could cost you a season's worth of blooms etc.
good luck!

You've gotten a lot of great advice.

Mine? If you want to plant roses you can plant almost anything and if you throw enough time and chemicals at it, it will be presentable.

If you want to plant roses and have FUN, plant roses appropriate for your zone (cold hardiness for your area) AND pick roses that are resistant to the fungi in your area. I cannot emphasize the last point enough. I struggled with them for years until, thanks to this forum, I realized that if I just planted appropriate varieties, I could have the bushes that made me happy and didn't require spraying for fungus to keep them looking good. That made me happy because a) it's better for the environment, and even more personally important, I do not have it in me to be so regimented to spray what is needed AND on schedule.

Cruising this forum and also the Antique forum (don't be afraid about Antiques!) you'll absorb things with osmosis in time. And, don't be afraid with the favorite vendors we tout here - they are WONDERFUL mom and pop set ups that ship wonderful stock and are in business primarily so that old or unique roses won't be lost over the frenzy for the latest best thing. Roses from the 1700s and 1800s are around for a reason: they are HARDY!!!

I hope you get hooked and enjoy a wonderful new adventure in gardening!!!

Diane already answered your question 5, I just second her. It is much better to start with quality roses and with nurseries that don't sell virused plants.

Red rose that easy to grow and fragrant? Well, it is a tall order. Somebody a few years back from Maryland said that Erotika had been trouble free and fragrant for her. But Erotika is a rose that it is not easy to find. I ordered it from Hortico but I would not recommend this nursery to you based on my experience. Maybe Appalachian rose nursery has it and if they do that is a very respectable nursery.

Chrysler Imperial is supposedly easy to grow and very fragrant but I don't know about its disease problems in MD - Olga would be needed here, who is the MD rose expert both in modern and antique roses.

Check out Chamblee's nursery for other roses except for the smelly red - you will get very well priced plants. The best 1 gallon own roots I got came from them for years. They have a lot of Buck roses, that would be great for a novice gardener. I would recommend Quieteness without any hesitation, Prairie Star, Prairie Harvest, Rural Rhythm, Wanderin' wind, and Winter Sunset are also excellent roses - easy to grow and all have fragrance.

I think it is too late for planting bareroots, otherwise I would recommend to check out Pickering nurseries. But for the future that's what I recommend - early on! late August or September start studying their online catalog - they offer 900+ roses on a rootstock that is far better for the east cost than any grafted rose that you can find in a chain store or even a top-notch and expensive local nursery.

This advise does not apply to those roses that are own root (Both J&P and supposedly Weeks offer own root roses recently).

As far as I know Belinda's dream is not a good rose in MD, because it balls too often. In the pink category based on the reports from Maryland, you would be better off with Earth song or Georgetown tea.

I second a trip to Hartwood Roses in Fredricksburg, VA. Connie is a fabulous, knowledgeable and patient person. You can see all the different kinds of roses, their growth habits, etc, get sound suggestions, and ask tons of questions. Most people in most nurseries don't know diddly about roses. It is a beautiful trip. Her website is www.hartwoodroses.com.

You have some really good advice above, but I would like to say since you are new to roses and you are just starting out I think it would be a good idea to start with Home Depot or Lowes roses. I say this because you don't want to invest a lot of money right now on roses that might not make it. You are just starting out, so get something cheaper so if it dies there is no big loss, money wise. Then in a few years when you feel you are a little more experienced then it will be time to invest with the mail order rose companies. If you are careful and check the rose carefully at HD and/or lowes you can find a healthy roses. Yes some do get rose mosaic problems but they will live for sometime, by then you should be more experienced and you can shovel prune it and buy something healther but at least you started out with a rose that was cheaper, and the loss will not be a huge expense. Jackson and Perkins rose's are reasonable for a beginner. You can get Mr Lincoln for 22 or so dollars. Mr Lincoln is a good beginner rose, with long stem red roses that will smell up the whole living room in a bouquet. So start slow do not overwhelm yourself. Also Rose's for dummies is a good book for beginners.
Good luck,
Carrie

In zone 7 Virginia, Mister Lincoln is not a good beginner rose, unless you are willing to treat regularly with fungicides. Better to start with disease resistant roses and then decide if you want to move to those that need more (much more) care.

Mr. Lincoln has several problems: there's the need to spray fungicides anywhere it grows where there is heat and humidity (like the Eastern Shore); if you can keep leaves on it, it also suffers from being a tease- it makes you wait a long time in between blooms. Ambient humidity also makes it prone to botrytis (rotted petals) when the blooms do come.
All that said, I do have a friend who so loves Mr. Lincoln's occassional blooms that she always has one in her garden. Sadly, she's found that she needs to buy a new one each year. Happily she can often find a rose labeled Mr. Lincoln in the cheapest bagged roses at the beginning of the season.

The Eastern Shore of Maryland was home to one of the most important people to realize the potential of old garden roses. When the rest of rosedom were running to buy the newest roses, she saw wonderful roses blooming freely at abandoned home sites. You might want to borrow a copy of "Old Roses" by E.E. Keyes from your library to get a feel for her adventures in rosedom in your own back yard. She believed that roses did really well in your part of the world; she just avoided modern roses.

I wonder why I didn't think of Mrs. Keays. I suppose I thought the poster was more interested in modern roses, like many beginners. I hope he/she'll get back to us.

Actually, Mrs. Keays' home and garden wasn't on the Eastern Shore, but in Southern Maryland - Calvert County, near Lusby. But it was on the Chesapeake Bay, with conditions likely the same as the OP.

I am looking at the book now. The forward states that "A complete collection of her roses was presented to the University of Maryland ... has long since disappeared." That makes me want to scream!