Well, this, too, is spring. It can't all be pretty little wildflowers and soft-petalled hellebores. The truth is that in spring we must try to undo what we did the year before, or, in the case of these Hansen Hedge Roses, the years before: namely, not pruning. The hedge roses, I have learned, are supposed to be pruned like any other hedge, snipped into shape with pruning shears just after they bloom in June. I suspected that this was probably the right thing to do from the start, but I just never did it. The hedge row grew taller, and wider, shooting out onto the lawn and spreading over into the vegetable/annual garden, and because it was so vigorous and I was so busy, I just let it. Even after several years of this expansion, the hedge was still quite beautiful, although it was dying out at the bottom where sun could no longer reach the canes. Serious cleaning out was called for.

In early March, before the snow was gone, I started cutting back live canes and cutting out dead ones. In appreciation, the rose canes scratched and stabbed me with abandon. I managed about two hours per day on the project for four days--then walked away and left it all until the lawn was dry enough so that I could drive the truck out to pick up the rose brush. Now, four pickup loads later, the site is neat and manageable. Spring, always portrayed as tender new shoots and the joy of new life, really begins with destruction. It may not be pretty, but it's pretty important.