. Within very few
| years, they made an excellent 6 ft hedge which does not need to be
| clipped to topiary perfection and gived the bonus of red berries in
| the autumn.

I got rid of mine, because I was sick of pruning it. If done once
a year, it produced 6' shoots, 3/4" across at the base and with
1" spines which had no problems going through heavy leather gloves.
To keep it under control, it needed pruning 3 times a year.
I planted two at my last house. I trained one vertically on an "inside
corner" of the building. When we moved, after eighteen years, it was above
the guttering (2 story house). The other had grown into a very repectable
short hedge which was great for detering the neighbour's kids....