Ok, somebody's got to have experience with growing roses up lamp posts...I can't be the only one wanting to do it. After the new year, I'll call the international test garden in Portland to see if I can speak with someone in charge of their climbers to find out how they grow them up lamp posts. But I'd love to get some replies on this thread before then!

Thanks for the reply, Jackie! You bring up considerations that I've been mulling over as well. I was thinking of John Davis as a possibility, since it's reputedly less thorny and more hardy, but not huge--maybe 8'? The lamp post is about 20 feet tall. I just want to climb 1/3 of it.

But I agree, the bigger question is, are homeowners even allowed to plant on the strip b/t the sidewalk and the street? Right now all that's growing there is grass.

If you are talking about street-light posts (as opposed to a lamp post on your property) you should first determine who owns the thing. City? Electric Company??? Water & Power Dept??? Other ???

Because if you are planting your rose on -- say -- a city-owned strip of land, and growing it up a lamp post owned by DWP or Edison, I recommend you plant something that is wholly replaceable.

Because, eventually, the owners of that pole will wish to service it, or replace it, or or or -- and when that happens, the rose is toast. We lost a mature Reve d'Or that way. It was growing up an Edison-owned pole which also carries equipment owned by a couple of cable companies. Edison didn't mind, but the cable guys (who can be downright nasty) deliberately whacked it to the ground. The pole was on an Edison Co. right-of-way. We had no recourse.

Likewise, a second Edison-owned pole, at the other side of our property, was replaced a couple of years back because it was rotted out under ground. The contract workers who did THAT job got the old pole out and a new one installed in one day, with almost no damage to the two flanking roses -- but had they not been as cool as they were, we'd have lost 'Lady Reading,' and one International Herald Tribune.

Jeri

In my town the City does not take care of that strip of land between the sidewalk and the street, although they own it. They WANT homeowners to plant things there (otherwise it would be rampant unmowed weeds), but say that they should not be too tall, so as to not block folks trying to get into their cars.

So, we planted the 90 foot long strip in front of our house with "ground cover" roses, some of which of course are 2-3 feet tall. There is a driveway, a walkway from our front garden gate, and a gravel path that allows easy access to the street for pedestrians in several places, and of course over the years one of the very very low (6 inches) ground cover rose has just been trampled into a path. The rest of the roses are OK - they have defenses!

I did plant one rose at the bottom of a phone pole, but it is not a climber. It gets about 4-5 feet high, and gets pruned every winter. So far (20+ years) the guys from the phone company have been very careful - they climb up over it, and have not damaged it. So, I would just do it, and see what happens. As Jeri says, don't plant anything you aren't willing to lose.

Jackie

gardenerzone4, I dont have experience with this personally, but I have Peter Schneider's book The Right Rose for the Right Place " and in it he tells of a "Jeanne La Joie" rose trained up a light pole that was lovely.
roseberri