...obviously I'm a long way from you, but I have grown Alexandre Girault successfully on one side of a metal archway, - I had a different rose the other side - about 7 foot high at the apex and found it really easy to deal with, you also get a few later blooms on it too... it remains my favourite rambler even though I don't have it here now...

...with Evangeline, I've not grown this, but I saw it at Peter Beales garden in my area, some years ago and it was striking grown up a single pole obelisk type construction... pillar wrapped as you say, is a good way to describe it... it was certainly very beautiful and I was terribly impressed at the time...

A lot of ramblers like to climb trees, if you some that are sturdy and large enough for the varieties you want to plant. Our solution for inexpensive structures is cheap but not beautiful--the roses supply the beauty--rebar pergolas topped with wood or bamboo.

Pillar wrapping sounds labor-intensive, just so you know. You might be able to tie some ramblers to a pillar and let them fountain out; the wichuriana ramblers might be too lax for this, however. Or consider a line of posts with lines of wire running horizontally from post to post and training the flexible ramblers as a green wall. All this takes work. Or grow them in rebar cages. Some stiffer ramblers can be allowed to grow without support: this works in our garden for 'Blush Rambler', for example.

We have 'Leontine Gervaise' growing on a small shed. We ran wires across the top of the structure and down to where the rose was growing, then trained it up the wires and onto the roof, where it's now well established. Our shed has a masonry roof; I would be interested in hearing what other forum members have to say about roses on tin roofs (heating up in the sun and who knows what other considerations).

I wish you luck with your ramblers! I love them too.

Michael Walsh,
the breeder of many Wichurana hybrid ramblers, used cedar posts to display his
roses. The wichurana hybrids are very easy
to wind around the post when the roses are dormant and free of foliage. I use a step ladder to wind the canes and
jute string to fasten them to the post.
The jute disintegrates after a few years without leaving any plastic
remains. If you wind the canes every
year, you replace the fastenings anyway.
Note that the Wichurana hybrids flower on old wood so don’t prune too
hard or you will prune off the flowering wood and have a post with nothing but
foliage.

'Evangeline' is the most virorous of the Walsh ramblers and might be too large for a post, but might climb a tree if helped along by binding it to the tree. It is best not to plant the rose under the tree, but in the drip line so that you can attach it to a overhanging branches.

If a rambler rose spread is described as 10 ft wide and you want it to be along a pathway on a pillar/vertical support, how far back from the walk should the rose be set? Aside from winding/braiding up the pillar, is there a great deal of extra pruning to control width during the growing season? My other ramblers spill over a very high retaining wall so I haven't had to do much in the way of control except on the opposite side where my kid loathes to mow if I haven't pruned to a high fountain or tied canes back to the fence line. I've seen one video on putting roses on pillars, but not really addressing more vigorous growers and their maintenance when close to mow paths or walkways.

About blooming on old wood, that means wood that has gone through winter. If one prunes severely at midsummer, the rambler will grow out 10' or so, and there will be plenty of old wood to bloom the following spring.

I would put the post at least 4' (1.2m) from the edge of the path. The post after it is enveloped by the rose should be about 4' wide. In my zone 6 garden it takes several years for the rose to fully envelope the post. During the growing season I tuck loose canes into canes that have already been secured to the post as this helps to make a fuller effect and prevents long hanging canes. I do very little pruning until the post is quite fully enveloped by the rose and then just to take out the oldest canes.

The 'Excelsa' in the photo below is three years old and the canes don't yet reach the top of the post. At the beginning of the growing season there were only a few canes winding the 12' (4m) post. You can see that all the flowers are on short laterals that are the present seasons growth and now hang from the canes winding the post. Next spring I will have more canes winding the post and that will fill in the sections now without flowers and I can secure the canes hanging at the top onto the post.

There is not yet a path surrounding the pillar. There are two more pillars already installed and two more to be installed this fall. Eventually, all five will be surrounded by grass so one can walk up to the pillars and enjoy the roses close up.

My ramblers grow along a 3 rail pasture fence with wire running between the boards and extended above the fence to attached canes. I have always liked the pillar effect and would like to pursue that growing habit. Centifolia67 and others, how many canes do you allows to wrap around a post for a rambler? On my fence, I do limit the number of canes, but assume more canes can run along a fence than around a pillar for air circulation?

It depends entirely on the rose. For a Wichurana hybrid, most of the canes will be quite thin and pliable and are easily wound around the post. I am sure you will recognise when you have too many.