My sense of spring sickness is more along the lines of crown rot or dramatic withering and plant death... but maybe we all need to define terms and peek at some photos? Also, with so much tight space at Brian's place, it would be a treat to see the lush gardens!
I was envisioning what Pat and James described. I've had both floopers and wild-whorlers. The floppers sometimes self-correct, but the wild-whorlers that look like they are going to use their roots to climb out of the ground and wreak havoc, usually get re-planted. I don't know that they would have suffered otherwise, since at least one clump just seems to thrive that way and thus I have left it alone.
Photos might help sort out what this is really all about, perhaps ...