All things being equal, a budded plant is going to have greater maturity at planting than an own root, therefore should flower faster and achieve a larger size by the end of the first season than an own root. Old ARS floral research from the 1970s found florist roses required 35 perfect leaves to make one perfect flower. Of course that isn't standard for every rose of every type, but it gives you an idea of what it might require to get the color display you're after. The more leaves, the more food production, therefore the greater the flower production. You SHOULD get faster bloom and faster flowering the first season, perhaps rolling over into the second if the plants are larger and more mature going into their first winter, out of budded plants, because of the extra vigor of older roots. A budded plant is one year growth of the named variety and two year's growth of the root stock. An own root is usually a year old, sometimes, two.

Except for a few roses that I've bought from David Austin or local nurseries, every rose I buy is own-root because the on-line nurseries that stock roses I'm interested in have own-root plants. Lately I've ordered roses mainly from The Antique Rose Emporium which ships in two-gallon pots and the roses for the most part do well and grow fairly quickly. I've bought roses in much smaller pots in the past, but with six years of drought and a steadily warming climate that option is more chancy now. The composition of your soil also makes a difference. I garden on decomposed granite (although I do amend the soil) and the roses don't take off nearly as well as they would in a rich clay soil.

I agree with Kim, grafted roses will give you a bigger, more vigorous plant, with better chances of survival, going into that first winter. I haven't had good luck with own root roses surviving the first winter because they're still very small plants with small root balls. If you plant your grafts below the surface you shouldn't have any problems with losing the grafted variety and ending up with root stock.

A soil test is always a good idea but soil can be amended and acidified if needed.

I always hear that about multiflora, but it doesn't seem to have any problem thriving in our basic soil. : ((

Our wild multiflora always looks like crap starting about now. Multiflora ramblers and some hybrid musks and polyanthas turn wildly chlorotic without special soil amendments. While my pH is insanely high for the east, 7.2 isn't really bad in the overall scheme of things.

Own root roses can live longer, so that is what I prefer.

That's interesting Mad. I'll have to keep an eye on the one in my yard that I'm keeping to to and learn chip budding. It certainly roots easily enough. Many of my polys, HMs and other random roses and plants do get chlorotic. Sometimes they outgrow it, but other times I give them Hollytone or Miracid. I don't mind for the few that get that way. I frankly only have a few grafted roses and only two both grafted and OR, Cinco de Mayo and Pink Pet. We'll see how they grow in comparison to one another.

I don't know about that, Sheila. I have some grafted roses around here that my Mom planted and are over 60 years old. That's 60 Michigan winters! They've been dug up and moved several times too.

I wonder if they went own root Seil. That is great. I have had grafted roses poop out after 15 years or so.

Christopher Said:
"Multiflora rootstock is known for going chlorotic in alkaline soil, so perhaps before you choose anything grown on it, you should have your soil tested. That might make the decision for you."

*** This is an issue for me! Our climate is overly mild, and our soil and water are extremely alkaline -- So, Multiflora is a bad choice of rootstock, here.

OTOH, Fortuniana is a GREAT rootstock here!

Huey really isn't bad, but I'd want virus-indexed stock . . .

Anyhow, I agree that a soil test might help to answer that question.

(OH -- And a LOT of the time, I personally would prefer to have own-root. But then, I'm not in a rush for things to grow up.)

Thanks a lot everyone. I actually understand more correctly... I thought in a grafted plant the root stock influenced the phenotype, appearance, growth pattern and life of the graft far more and more permanently....and so the combination of root stock plus graft could lead to so many possibilities I would not ever know how to choose. I dont know where I got that idea. it really is for easier propagation and to get a larger more vigorous plant initially which makes it easier to get through the first winter. I had also heard about grafted roses not living long. So I guess the answer is to plant them deep enough that they become own root soon enough.

I dont have alkaline soil, a nice 6.4-6.5. One thing I can be proud of is my fluffy black loam..well drained but moisture retentive. So multiflora will work for me.

I have only bought own root roses simply because of where I was buying the roses from...such as ARE and Heirloom. I am going to give Palatine roses a try!!

This was the clarification and understanding I needed all this while and I can now go forward with some confidence...Thank you!

Katy, you were right that the grafted rootstock has some impact on appearance and growth patterns the experts say. This all does get more complex than most of us need to worry about. I have enough trouble finding the rose I want sometimes so I've bought grafted, and it can work out fine.

Sheila, well what do you know. I know I have an instinct for biology ;) I am just going to jump in and learn as I go.