I would have watered it really well to loosen the hard soil for starters. You will not kill it by not getting all the roots as you mentioned its a well established bush. If you are still fighting it, water it well and rock it from all sides.

ms - had you thought about saving yourself some frustration and borrowing someone with some weight for 20 minutes?

My DH doesn't garden, but that doesn't mean three of us on this block with gardens and not all the strength we'd like don't put him on the operating end of a sharp shovel from time to time. Neighbor, friend, husband of a friend?

Just be sure to tell him to keep his feet as small as possible if he steps into your garden :)

I've resorted to using a crowbar for getting out some tough shrubs and plants, like Cherry Laurels and Miscanthus grasses. While it's not ideal because you can't often keep the entire rootball intack, it does allow you to slice under the roots in a minimal way and work the entire root system out. I've also learned to roll shrubs in moving them (after wrapping the roots), and not try to lift them up. Watch your back :)

What do you mean rolling them?

It's really funny sometimes. I bet my neighbors think I'm crazy. I'll dig up a plant as much as possible and grab it and take off at a running start but it never seems to work.

I have a couple of strange tools for cutting tough, never-ending roots.

One is a wide-bladed chisel such as a mason might use to split bricks, except it's cruder (I made it out of a railroad spike.) I put it against the root and hammer on it with a mallet. The other is a homemade machete type of knife made from an old car spring. Same kind of deal.

If you find a beat-up lopper at a rummage sale you might be able to cut roots with that.

Have you ever used a comealong? It's a lever-operated block and tackle device that will exert a lot of pull, so you won't have to do the grab-and-run thing.

You're almost there. Keep at it!

:-)M