Question
I have planted several roses this year for my mom who just came to live with us. I have climbers, bushes, and a knockout bush. I live in Cincinnati and don't know what to do so they come back in the spring. I have heard cut them back, mulch them about a foot up. So what do I do.

Thank You
Dan

Answer
You are in a zone that could get cold enough in the winter to kill roses, so it would be a wisdom to protect them. You do need to protect the base of the bush so that if the winter is particularly nasty, the rose will only die back to about a foot. 12 inches is enough for any rose to grow back again in the spring and bloom well.
Just take soil from another part of the garden and mound it up all around the base. You can also use compost, bark mulch or any other type of mulch you can get in your area. Make sure you have had a couple of really hard frosts before you mound them up as you could make a warm environment and activate the rose into growth which would of course die very quickly. A rose bush can take a few hard frosts with no problem. The same applies in reverse in the spring. Wait until all danger of hard frosts are over and then remove the soil. Take a small handful of slow release fertilizer such as Osmocote 14-14-14 which will last for 6 months. Then don't give the roses anymore fertilizer as you want the canes to harden off before any cold winter sets in. The sap will have flowed down to the roots and any cold winds will not harm the rose bush.
In regards to cutting them back. Many climbers are bush roses that have reverted to a climber and if you cut them back hard they sometimes forget they are a climber and revert to a bush again. Make sure the climber is secured to whatever you have it on and then if a can is long and sticking out sideways and you can't tie it back simply cut it back so it won't whip around in the winds and snap off. For bush roses they really don't need to be pruned until there are about 3 years. The reason is because they need all the leaves and canes they have to grow into a strong plant. For now all you do is remove any dead or damaged canes and prune back any very tall ones back even with the rest. After three years just cut them back by a third in the springtime.
Hope this helps.