I do not think you need to do anything in Jacksonville to prepare for winter...... I am farther south than you..... here I have to cut back normally twice a year..... Northern Florida is supposed to cut back normally once a year..... the cut back should be either January or February.....

I'm in the Jax area. I don't cut mine back routinely. You can trim them back in late Jan or Early Feb if you want to shape them. I sometimes cut a few back harder if I need them to get bushier but it isnt a 'must' here.

Usually with climbers, I trim the laterals back to a few nodes but mostly leave the long main canes.

Different people do stuff diffeently but here is some general info. More on roses with N FL instructions included.

http://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/lawn-and-garden/growing-roses/

I dont trim Tea roses (antique teas not hybrid teas) back at all because they resent it. The noisettes dont really like much pruning either but they aren't as picky as the teas.

It doesn't really freeze hard enough here to make the roses go totally dormant. They just slow down flowering a little. Some of mine are still blooming right now.

Even in 2009/2010 when it froze several nights in the teens F my roses were okay and didnt freeze.

This winter, I wonder if we will freeze at all? So far we haven't, which is a little unusual.

Thank you.

Pauline, Keith Zary once said that when prunning hybrid tea, prunning shorter gives you bigger blooms but fewer of them. If you prune taller you will get more blooms but slightly smaller .