Dug up trees

There is construction going on near my house. They are putting up a condo or something. They ravaged most of the plants on the lot, but there were a few left. I have looked at them every day for 3 months. I asked the foreman if I could dig up some of the trees left on the lot. He was more then happy to let me do so so long as I was careful and did not get hurt on his site.

These trees are honeysuckle. They bud back super well from old wood and hard cuts. They also shed bark like mad. Fortunately, they were planted in front of a cement wall. The roots did not have a chance to spread far, but they were deep. I just hacked at the deep roots with my shovel. I took home 4 root balls, which ended up as 6 plants. One is thick (2 1/2 inch), two have nice shape and taper, two have dynamite roots, and the third is pleasantly grotesque. On the last I had to choose between the roots which emerged from the trunk at the surface of the soil, or the the heavier roots from the bottom of the bucket the plant was grown in before planting out. I chose the thick roots, but this leaves me with a bulge where the top roots were.