They do grow quite quickly. If you planted some 12" cuttings they would be 3/4 feet high within a year, and can grow very high. I have a 10 foot high one growing up the wall of my house. They have masses of white flowers in the spring and are covered with red/orange/yellow berries all through the winter. The birds love them especially when there's not much food about in the winter.
And they are VERY prickly - I wouldn't like to try to get through them - and you can trim them to form a hedge.