First of all...WOW - 1b, never met/emailed anyone from there. That part of the world would give you some gardening headaches, I would imagine! Anyway, I agree with bboy. Cut out as much as you can or maybe even try watering well to loosen up the soil and then commence to gettin that root all the way out. Roses can regenerate from a small piece of root, but I'm not so sure about Cotoneasters. They might be wimps and you've killed it already! If it does pop up, paint IT with Glyphosphate ( Roundup ) and that will kill it off. Good luck, I think you'll be fine.

I've got a funny story about removing rocks. I grew up gardening in California adobe clay. No rocks. Having rocks in your garden was a sign of severe laziness. I did commercial landscaping and I made sure I picked out every single rock when preparing a lawn seed bed. Grass seed won't sprout on rocks after all, needs to be in contact with soil, and no one wants to step on a rock when they're running across the lawn in bare feet. So, every single rock came out, but that wasn't any work at all as there might only be half a dozen rocks in your average size lawn. Then I moved to Washington state. Recently glaciated soil. That means glacial till and outwash, and that means ROCKS. Lots of 'em. Gravel, cobble, boulder, hardpan. There's hardly any soil! I liken it to gardening in aquarium gravel. So I was preparing the lawn seed bed in my new house soon after moving here and before I had fully processed the differences in soil types. I raked, and I raked, and I raked, that seed bed, tossing out all the bigger rocks - never mind the gravel. I raked some more. And more. And more. I spent days raking up rocks. The season for seeding lawns was coming to a close and winter was heading my way. I kept raking. The rocks kept coming. Every drag of the rake turned up more. Did I mention we had an abandoned gravel pit on our property? Eventually, my then-husband, no gardener but more accustomed to the local soils, stuck his head out the door. "Honey, how long are you going to keep at that??? The rocks aren't going away!" He was right, and I had to admit defeat. Oh the shame! leaving a lawn seed bed FULL of rocks like that! I would have never left a seed bed like that back in California! but I had no choice here. Adapt, or die! Anyway, since these same gravelly and rocky soils produce some of the most and best timber in the world, you can see that there's nothing inherently wrong with rocks in the soil. Rocks decompose and release mineral nutrients, and the basic matrix of the soil itself. They provide mechanical stability and increase drainage. Although it is possible to have too much of a good thing - my soil here is described officially as 'excessively well drained'. You cannot keep it damp in summer. Water goes right through it. Oh how I wish for a bit of clay. Although it's nice in the winter when it rains for 60 days straight to have water draining right through your soil without stopping. But, rocks are bad for root crops, and seed won't sprout on rocks. That lawn always was kinda sparse because of all the rocks on the surface, and more every year. If you only have some, you can remove them as you go. If it's all you've got, well, you just kinda come to terms with it. I do have one little patch I've tried to dig out all the rocks for a veggie garden, I mean about 40 sq ft. Every time I go to plant something new, or till in more compost, I turn up more rocks. Root crops have to go into raised beds filled with imported, screened soil. Washington's famous potatoes and Walla Walla onions do not grow in glacial gravelly till, you can be sure of that. No, this is timber soil here. Yesterday I planted an artichoke in that little veggie plot. I would say the volume of the soil from the hole was about half rocks of various sizes. I removed I think one or two. Tossed them under the deck. There'd be no soil left if I removed them all. The roots will just grow around them. It does mean less water holding capacity - rocks won't hold water at normal pressures after all but there's nothing I can do about that.

I came from Illinois, also, in May of 2000. I've learned much since moving here; about illegals, snakes and native plants. Sometimes I learned the hard way. For example, getting too close to the cactus that will jump on you, if you get too close! Ouch! (I forgot the name of that one). The needles are very hard to extract from your skin! I think I suffered more from trying to remove them, than actually having them in my skin. We get several rattlers in our yard, every year. As a matter of fact, one has taken up residence under our home. But, I don't mind, for it has cut down the amount of field mice who like to come into our home in the fall/winter. One time, a rattler was cornered in a hole, from my dogs, a hole my shepherd mix had dug, earlier in the week. All three of my dogs barked a warning to us, keeping a good distance from it, themselves. My fiance' tried to get it back into the desert. But, it was too close to a place where it could get under our house and there it went. Does it bother me that we have a resident snake? Well, if I had young children it would. But, since I've learned about snakes in AZ, how shy they are and how the rattlers make their rattle sounds to warn, not necessarily to attack, unless they felt they had to, I am not as afraid as when I first moved here. When my dog, (two had passed away last year), warns me, now, I just bring her in and let the snake go where ever it wants. Hopefully back out to the desert that backs up to my backyard. Like the others, posting here, I just keep an ear/eyes open and try to avoid them. After all, they were here first and they are good for eliminating mice, etc. As far as the African bees, I can tell you one thing. If you find them in or near your yard, it is best to call a professional. The bees don't like any noise and loud colors on a person. Especially yellow, it seems. Some colors seems to anger them. I was weed wacking one day, (wearing a yellow top), far from their nest,(about 1/4 acre away), when they came after me. Thankfully, I was right near my back door and was able to duck inside before I was hit by many. Only one stung me, so I had to take medication because I'm allergic to bees. If you think you are near those bees, keep quiet, try to wear soft colors, when working outside and keep your ears open. You can hear the bees in their nests, for their buzzing is loud, and when they are traveling, looking for a new hive to start. If they don't pass by, but settle near your home, then call a professional, definitely. They are very aggressive and once they start after you, they won't quit! For more information about these bees, check out: http://phoenix.about.com/cs/desert/a/killerbees01.htm

I'm not an expert either, but can I ask what you're digging with? I may have a big problem in the spring, too, as we just removed a lilac that wasn't in a good spot. In 5 years it only got 3 blooms. After having the stump ground, I kept digging, and after getting my huge hole, I took the garden fork to it, day after day for 4 days until I couldn't find any more root. I hope it worked, as I've already made a raised bed and planted appropriate shrubs. One thing you might be interested in trying. Since you already have your shrub potted up, maybe you'd like to just bury it in the pot until spring. Then you can take it out, wait a bit, and see if the catoneaster is gone. I may wish in the spring that I'd done the same thing. Good luck!