It sounds like your climbers are young, in the ground a year or two, is that right? Young climbers don't need much pruning. They need to establish, which generally takes them longer to do than HTs or floribundas. This is the general scenario of how climbers develop in my zone 9 garden and how I deal with them. Your milage may vary depending on the climber, the climate, and the care. Growing season #1: climber produces a few less-than-full sized canes and blooms a little. Towards the end of the growing season the climber might produce one or two mature sized canes (the advertised size) that look way out of proportion to the rest of the plant. Pruning after season #1: remove dead, diseased, damaged wood only. Arrange canes so they don't interfere with or damage each other. There may not be enough canes to make a good balanced fan on the support. Growing season #2: climber produces some mature sized canes and blooms moderately. Side shoots (laterals) may be produced by the mature-sized canes, with flowers at the end of each lateral. Pruning after season #2: remove dead/diseased/damaged wood, tip-prune the laterals that bloomed, shorten some laterals only as necessary (damage, grossly out of proportion, etc). Arrange canes as well as can be expected, so they don't interfere with or damange each other. Growing season #3: Climber produces several new mature sized main canes of greater diameter than year #2, and blooms pretty well off of multiple lateral shoots on each mature-sized cane. Pruning after season #3: I remove all the less-than-mature sized canes that grew the 1st year, trim the side shoots (laterals) coming off the canes grown in years 2 and 3, and then rearrange all the canes nicely on their support, because there are now enough good big canes do do a good balanced job of fanning out evenly on the supporting structure. Growing season 4 and thereafter: Very good to excellent bloom. Plant produces a new large basal (main) cane or two. Pruning after growing season #4: I completely remove 1 or 2 of the oldest least productive large canes right down to the base. I trim back all the laterals and may remove some laterals that are looking old. On some roses I remove all the short laterals because they are not that productive the next year, on others I leave them, because they are productive. Ideally you entirely remove 1 or 2 large canes and the climber grows 1 or 2 new ones as replacements, so the climber is continually renewed. On some roses, the laterals remain short and I attach only the main canes to the support. On other roses the laterals can get as long as the main canes, and I may have main canes and long laterals all tied to the support, as is the case with this Sombreuil: This Sombreuil is 6 years old from a Vintage band and is freshly pruned down to about 16' wide and 9' tall at the tallest point. You can see a couple of short laterals that I missed if you look carefully. The stucco part of the fence is 4' and the iron adds another 2' so the fence overall is 6' tall. It took me about 8 hours to prune it all, take it all off the fence and retie it back on. If your climbers are young, those 12' canes of yours have side shoots coming out of them, you might need to shorten the side shoots. If they don't have side shoots yet, they don't need any cutting back unless there is damaged, diseased, or dead wood, which should be removed. If the wood all looks good, leave it. As far as the foliage is concerned, I look at the new axial buds swelling at the base of each leaf. If the swelling is pretty far advanced, last year's leaves are getting ready to fall off. I cut off or knock off the old foliage and put it in the trash because it usually has a bit or a lot of Rust at that point. I would rather have the Rust go into the trash than back into the garden. Of course the old leaves will eventually fall off by themselves, but a mix of new and old foliage looks really bad to me. I like to start with a clean slate. Just my personal choice. Well, hope that helps. This is my experience in zone 9, others will have different experiences to share.

I just posted some climbers pre-bloom on the gallery, strangely enough. You can see what they were like pruned. Most of the winter, they are not pruned and are long and gangly. But winter is ugly, so the unpruned roses fit the mood here. Kathy

Michael, I agree that the burlap doesn't keep them warmer. What I think it does do is hold moisture in and protects them from winds that can dry the canes out. As you said, the only way to keep them warmer is to provide a heat source. But in fact you really don't necessarily want to keep them warmer. They need to go dormant and stay dormant. However, keeping them from becoming desiccated is beneficial. Mike, 2 to 3 inches is a start, and not knowing much about Durham's climate may be enough, but more would be better. I don't winter protect everything in the ground any more but if there is something new or one that I know is tender I pile on the mulch using something to hold it up and on if necessary. I like to try and go at least 6 inches and have done as high as a foot on a rose that I knew was weak. I've used old, broken plastic flower pots with the bottoms cut off and milk jugs, bottoms off and side slit to get it around the rose. Mounded soil works well and stays in place. Experiment with what you have to see what works best. But don't winter protect too soon. You have to be patient and wait for the weather and the roses to tell you when it's the right time. Some years I have done it in October because it was very cold very early. Other years I had to wait into December before the roses finally went dormant. The point of winter protection isn't to keep them warm it's to keep them evenly cold and dormant all winter and early spring through all the ups and downs of the temperatures until it really is spring for good.

Thanks for the responses all. Susan I would be interested in what roses you successfully over winter? Seil, as always, thanks for sharing your experience with a new rose gardener like me. Mad_gallica, I have quite a variety in pots that I am over wintering. Every thing from Explorer series to HT's. I am doing so for a variety of reasons. First, the plants were on sale late in the season and I came to a conclusion that I would possibly have a lower mortality rate if I had them in a controlled environment. I also didn't have a complete plan of where they were going to be planted. Lastly and especially with the HT's, I was told whether in a pot or ground they wouldn't survive the winter. Who doesn't like a challenge when the roses are only rated a half to full zone warmer, depending on where you look? Thanks for the explantation. I had a feeling I was way overthinking it. I couldn't figure out why people would water frozen pots forgetting that most of the members here live in warmer climates. I, too, kept my pots wet till they froze so the plant isn't dehydrated when it starts to thaw. Thanks again everyone. SCG