I am having the same problem. Which end ended up being up? :)

Never looked at their roots, so not much help there, although I doubt you're looking at top growth. Most likely, those are roots, or vestiges of roots.

What I do know is if you like one globe thistle, you'd better like one thousand. I admired this plant at one time, so much so that I introduced it to a number of plantings. Wasn't too many years later, globe thistle was just about all I had in those spots.

Just sayin....

+oM