Removing the Monster Rose

Some time ago I planted a Cecile Brunner climbing rose in the brick planter box that borders our patio. My intention was to have a graceful fan of lovely pink roses along the fence. The actual result was an enormous biomass that arced at least ten feet over into the neighbor's yard, and rose another ten to fifteen feet up over the wooden arbor. No amount of pruning would contain this creature, which began to push over the fence with its enormous rootball.

After much soul-searching we decided to remove this rose and perhaps redesign that entire part of the yard. Treeguy to the rescue. He needed a handcart to move the trunk, which he said weighed a couple hundred pounds! We did get all the debris into the pickup truck in one load. Now comes the part about deciding what to do with the new space. I am partial to fruit trees, but we have to sit with this for awhile and come up with a plan.