The prep already carried out should be fine for roses as they fare well in clay soils,you might want to add more compost and some gravel if drainage is a problem.Multi purpose can be classed as "normal compost".

Thanks Dgw - Hum, thought that was the case Re: the compost. Shall do that as that noticed the soil level has sunk down a lot. I wasn't sure to add gravel or not as I usually only do it for my bulbs but think I do have drainage probs. Good to plant something that likes Clay at last. Do I mix the gravel in with soil/compost for planting the Roses?

Perhaps they meant peat free compost? That tends to dry out quickly which is not good for roses.

Re gravel, use pea sized ones and mix it in as that helps with drainage. I would fork over the whole area before adding the roses just to air it as it sounds like it has sunk over winter.

I have clay soil and dug over with some compost and gravel and most plants seem to do fine. The only problem areas are where there is a lot of traffic and that compacts the soil and that is where puddles form after rain. I just fork that area and aerate it, just look out after rain and see where problem areas are. Am sure your roses will be fine.

I'd also add a handfull of fish blood/bone meal and mix that in to the soil you have excavated from the planting hole and then back fill with it.

dont forget to spread the roots apart, many people forget and as the plants have come bare rooted[in the post?] they will be packed tight. this will give them the best start.
dont forget to water well for at least a couple of months even if it does rain.

i would use multi purpous and fish/blood bone meal wear you actualy plant the roses as if your moving a potted plant to give them a good start before they hit the clay soil .

Okay, there seems to be some confusion here about the term 'compost'. What the lady at the garden centre meant when she said 'normal' compost was NOT POTTING compost of any description. Multi purpose, John Innes are all potting composts, meant for potting up plants. The other form of compost is humus rich materials, such as your own well rotted garden compost, soil conditioning compost from the garden centre, well rotted animal manure compost, leaf mould, etc. That is what she was trying to say - not very well, admittedly, but that's what she meant.
If you added manures and similar humus rich materials previously, you could probably get away without adding more - just mulch round the new plants with it instead.

Thanks everyone !

Bamboo, that certainly clears up the confusion of the term 'compost'. The lady I spoke to was from David Austin Rose suppliers, she should have been more clearer as I told her I was a novice where Roses were concerned. I'd been searching for the words 'Normal' written on the bag - Lol

The trouble is, we all refer to 'compost' without usually saying potting compost to differentiate...

Surely multi purpose means just that "multi purpose", its suitable for a variety of purposes not just potting and therefore could be classed as normal compost. Depends on what you consider normal i suppose.

No, Dgw, that is not the case. If you examine the packaging, you should see the term 'potting' somewhere on a multi purpose bag. The multi purpose phrase means, in this case, for use with most plants IN POTS. For one thing, it is sterilized - soil conditioning compost and the like may not be. Heat is required to produce compost suitable for potting plants - this means that, in theory, if you ran a 'hot' aerobic composting system in your garden, you could use the resulting compost for potting. But for most of us, our heaps never get to the right temperature for long enough, nor are they aerobic heaps.
You could, if you wanted, waste money and use multi purpose compost in the ground, but its far better to use something designed to be put on the ground because it'll be humus rich, which multi purpose isn't, really.