Grave Results

"Dig 9 inches from the drip-line," the instructions said.

What they didn't say was what to do when the rose was sitting over a drain, wedged between a fence and a 1950's concrete patio, in Oregon clay.   About three-fourths of the way getting the rose out of the ground, the shovel handle snapped.  Using a combination of trowels and my hands, I managed to get the rose out of the ground.  I wouldn't call what was underneath a ball, exactly; more like the sort of snag that one finds by the edge of rivers.

With any luck I didn't kill it.  Now all I hope was that I didn't do the ornamental straw a huge favor by digging it up, shaking as much dirt loose from its roots as I could, and using the dirt to cover up the rose's roots.   Otherwise in about three months I'll have foreign weeds poking up along a dead rose cane.<