Well for beginners, especially on freshops.com they recommend 3 different hops for beginners. One of them was Cascades, I forget the other two.
But I ordered 1 cascade and 1 mt. hood rhizome and got them within 4 days or ordering, they're great.
What I did in selecting my hops was go through a book I have of different recipes, and see which ones appeared the most in many varieties. Some that I saw pop up a lot were Williamettes, Norhern Brewers, Cascade, Mt. Hood, Goldings, and to a lesser exteng Magnum,.
Of course that's still a pretty wide range, but just check out the alpha range of the hops listed when you're buying them. If you want hoppy beers go for the higher alpha ones of those, if you prefer more malty beers or whatnot, then go for the lower alhpa ranges
