Question
Dear Lynette:
Do I have to cut the rose back at all before I put the foot of soil around the rose?Gina-------------------------
Followup To
Question -
Dear Lynette,

What do I do to get my roses ready for winter?

I live in southern Ontario.

Thanks,

Gina
Answer -
I am assuming that you garden in a southern area of Ontario that gets a very cold winter. One of the things that you can do to make sure roses get through the winter is to never give them any fertilizer after the end of July. Then any new growth will have hardened off before the cold sets in. Giving roses fertilizer towards fall is literally killing them with kindness! Another way to make sure roses go through the winter is to grow only those roses that don't complain about your cold winters. Some hybrid teas will do okay while others prefer warmth and won't survive no matter what you do to protect them. Just for your information, I have found that any Kordes rose does very well for me because he breds mainly for the north of Germany which has nasty winters.
Back to your question. Roses need about a foot of soil, compost, mulch ets to make sure that if they do die back then they will always have a foot of canes left and any rose will bounce back from that amount of canes. The soil should be taken from another part of the garden because if you scoop it up around the rose bush you will be exposing it's roots. Some people make a cage out of fine mesh chicken wire with thee stakes though it and then fill it up with leaves, straw, compost but just hilling the soil up will be fine. Do this when there has been a hard frost because if you do it before you can create a little warm greenhouse and that may start the rose growing. A hard frost is when both the air and the soil temperature is below freezing. Don't worry about the rose in regards to cold days and night as you want the rose to go dormant and that is what will make it go dormant. Hope this helps. Lynnette

Answer
One of the problems in the winter is with the strong winds as they will make tall canes, those over 3 feet, to wave around in the wind. What this does is make the base of the rose bush act like a screw. The base rocks back and forth and makes a gap all around the base of the canes. Water or snow gets into this gap and when it freezes it kills the cane at the base and can also kill roots too. So if you have a bush that has a few or even one canes taller than the rest it is wise to cut it back even with all the others. You can then tie some string all around the bunch of canes. This will stop them from rocking. Don't be afraid to cut roses back because pruning a rose bush back every spring will activate more vigorous  growth. The secret to having healthy roses is to force them to make new growth each year. If you don't prune a rose the canes slowly make old wood which is very hard and stiff so that no new laterals can break through it. The end result is a few flowers on the top of the bush. Lynnette