Citrus plants originate in continental Southeast Asia. Their diffusion across the globe took about 2000 years. Glass as a raw material for the production of beads and vessels originated in the Near East. Its global spread took almost 3000 years. At the beginning of the third millennium orange juice and glass curtain facades represent essential components of a global culture of food as well as urban architecture. This global diffusion of two widely differing types of innovations occurred separately except for a rather brief yet decisive period of co-evolution in Western and Central Europe during the 16th to 18th century. The consequent globalisation of these two innovations results from their self-enforcing interference, when they were introduced into the garden cultures of the European nobility.