Read about 'Convexa' Japanese holly

looks like I can order 5 gallon Japanese Convexa holly online.

I got the holly and decided I want to create this look. Please help with placement.

I don’t want the low hedge, just the mounds.

I don’t want the low hedge, just the mounds.

Dwarf Yaupon Holly. Japanese hollies tend to have a squat shape (which is OK) but get larger and be harder to trim.

Thanks. Did you see what we have going on now? Also, how do I prune to ball shapes if there isn’t enough growth toward the bottom of the holly bushes to make a globe yet?

The ball shape doesn't happen immediately. You need to shape it over time. I'd start by establishing the final height you want and that will help to encourage side growth that can subsequently sheared into the rounded shape. And I should point out that these are very likely flattened balls......more like gumdrop shaped mounds. You can't undercut the lower foliage to create a full rounded ball as the top growth will shade it out, so you need the lowest portion at a slight angle out from the top.

This may take a number of growing seasons before you realize the shapes in the inspiration photo.....maybe 3-5 years.

What I was saying was that Japanese hollies get larger (many of them) than Dwarf Yaupon and are harder to trim than dwarf Yaupon (not boxwood) simply because of their branching habit, texture and wood properties.

"...Also, how do I prune to ball shapes..." If you're wanting to do it right, you WON'T prune to ball shapes. You'll prune to dome shapes, which give essentially the same flavor from a front-yard distance. Ball shapes lose foliage at the bottom (because it is shaded) and eventually, the ball starts looking like it's on little stilts. The dome shape retains its foliage all the way to the ground, over the long haul.

I did know to keep them wider at the base. But if they are sparse on the bottom, how can I make them grow more densely to achieve the look I want?

as you can see from the photo, I have the Compact holly already, so it’s a matter of getting spacing advice and pruning advice to achieve that look shown on that white house.

The goal of shape-pruning here will be to retard the upper growth slightly in the hopes that doing so will generate lower growth. Do not trim the lower growth when it comes until it achieves the sphere that you have envisioned ahead of time. For now, there is nothing to prune at the bottom of the plant. When you prune, you do not follow the plant outline, but follow the goal shape outline. Where growth does not yet exist, there's nothing to prune. Lower growth will come in time as long as light surrounds the plant.

Thank you so much for that great advice!!

Have you consider Juke Box® Pyracomeles? Fast growing, easily shaped evergreen, no boxwood blight. https://www.naturehills.com/juke-box-pyracomeles

Thuja Danica are great! Naturally globe shaped, like sun or partial shade, 4 x 4 max. Of the hollies, the convexa have always been used heavily in New England. They can get to be a pain in that a lot of people love to shear their plants, especially convexa, and you end up with huge plants with all the growth at the outer tips, and dead brown within. So cutting back is a problem, and keeping them to a nice small size is problematic. Whereas the inkberry hollies if properly cut back to keep bushy, could be a very nice substitute for box-Ilex Glabra compacta, densa, and shamrock. But look into the Danica-they are the backbone of my beds.

Yaupon is not hardy in zone 6. I would consider Ilex crenata 'Hoogendorn'. It wants to stay mounding. However it is rather finicky about it's siting. They need good drainage and at least some afternoon shade. The next best might be Ilex glabra, but that will need rejuvenation eventually because it can get leggy.

I agree the hoogendorn is a good choice. I had two-they’re a little harder to run across where I am. They were great for a while, until they weren’t. I plant box and ilex in the same general area-they both get hit by “blight” or whatever the nuisance it is. I never totally lose the plants, they would just have one section usually that looked not totally healthy. I’d prune it carefully out, sanitize my clippers, but it always comes back if your plant gets infected. So I just accept that occasionally I have to toss an infected plant-got rid of my oldest box-full grown, this spring. I live with it. But I have beautiful box-green mountain, Chicagoland, green velvet, and some great hollies-a stunning Helleri, inkberry, all of which are healthy.

So I've had the holly in place since early July and the bottoms of all of them are very twiggy and sparse in any leaves. I have fertilized them once. Is there any way to cause dense growth at their bases? They appear thin and leggy. Thanks!

Turns out 9 of them died from root rot. I'm going to replace them with something that is resistant, but wonder what will give me the mounding shape and also look very similar right next to the hollies I have. Thanks!