A ball and a globe are the same plant. A standard is that ball on a bare stem, which changes the price and the planting. It reads differently in a border too. Sort the names out, then buy on two numbers: head diameter for the look, and root ball for whether it fits the pot.
Ball and globe are the same plant
Ball and globe mean the same thing: a rounded head of foliage clipped to a sphere, with the foliage carried down to the base. Sellers use whichever word they prefer, and searchers use both.
A standard is a ball on a clear, bare stem. The head sits above the planting instead of in it. It costs more than a ball of the same head size, because the stem took years to grow straight and clean, and because a standard is harder to move without damage.
Double and triple ball are stacked heads on one stem. They are priced by how many heads and how tall, not by the volume of foliage.
Globe juniper is not boxwood. It is a juniper clipped to the same shape, with needled foliage instead of leaves and different tolerances. If a listing says globe and you assumed boxwood, check the species.
The root ball decides your planter
Check the head diameter for looks and the root ball for fit. Sellers usually quote only the first.
Head diameter is the width of the clipped sphere. It is what you judge by eye.
Root ball is the size of the soil ball the plant arrives on, and it decides whether the plant fits a container. Where our own listings state one, 24 inches is the figure that comes up most, and our 45 to 48 inch boxwood bear is listed on exactly that.
Many large planters narrow sharply at the mouth. A pot measuring nearly forty inches across its belly can have an opening of twenty-one, and a 24-inch root ball will not pass it.
That mismatch is the commonest way a planter that looked generous turns out to be unusable. The arithmetic is in what size planter a topiary needs.
$155. A 12 to 15 in globe. It ships by parcel.
Quoted. Three stacked heads on one stem.
Quoted. Listed on a 24 in root ball, the number that decides your planter.
What size to buy, by position
Buy a head of 18 to 24 inches for a pair flanking a standard front door. That is the band most people end up happy with. The size people regret is 12 inches; they wish they had gone bigger.
For a container on a step or a terrace edge, 12 to 15 inches. For a border where the plant has to hold its own against the planting around it, 24 inches and up.
Then check the root ball against the opening of whatever it is going into. That constraint overrules all of the above.
Order a pair together so it matches
Ask for your two plants to be selected together. The two plants either side of your door need to match. This is the single most common arrangement we are asked for.
Living plants vary. Two boxwoods of the same cultivar and the same head size will still differ in density and in the exact set of the sphere. Say it is a pair when you order, and they get picked together instead of from stock on different days.
The same goes for replacements. If one of a pair fails in year three, a new plant of the same nominal size will not match a three-year-old that has been clipped twice a year. People who have been caught once tend to buy a spare at the outset and grow it on somewhere out of sight.
The cultivar sets your workload
Growth rate sets how often you cut for the life of the plant and how much you remove each time. Published rates across common cultivars run from about half an inch a year to six, and two plants that look identical in the pot can sit at opposite ends of that.
Slow cultivars hold a tight sphere on two cuts a year and stay in proportion to their container for a long time. Fast ones look full sooner. Then they need cutting to stay spherical, where a slow one only needs cutting to stay tidy.
The cultivar-by-cultivar tables, with growth rates and zone tolerances, are in the zone guide. The running cost of keeping any of them is in what a live boxwood costs to keep.
Small ones ship by parcel, large ones by freight
Smaller plants travel by parcel. Larger ones travel by freight on a pallet. The dividing line is set by the root ball and the overall height, and price does not come into it.
So the same category holds a 12 to 15 inch globe that arrives by courier and a 45 inch specimen on a 24-inch root ball that arrives on a truck. Read the receiving FAQ before delivery day. A live plant that sits boxed for a weekend is a plant you are starting badly.
The full live range is on the ball topiary category. Where nothing living will survive, the artificial balls do the same job and need no cutting.
Questions we get asked
Is a globe the same as a ball?
Yes. Both words mean the same clipped sphere, and sellers use whichever they prefer. A standard is different: that head on a clear bare stem. It costs more because the stem took years to grow.
What size root ball will it arrive on?
It varies with the plant. Where our listings state one, a 24-inch ball is the figure that comes up most. Check it against the opening of your planter rather than its widest point, because many large pots narrow sharply at the mouth.
Can I order a matched pair?
Yes, and say so when you order. Living plants vary, so a pair selected together looks like a pair. Two ordered separately on different days may not.
Is globe juniper the same thing?
No. It is juniper clipped to the same shape, with needled foliage and different tolerances. If a listing says globe and you assumed boxwood, check the species before ordering.
How often will I have to cut it?
Twice a year on a slow cultivar. Published rates across common cultivars run from about half an inch a year to six, so the cultivar decides the workload more than the size does.
