FAQ
Questions, answered properly
Written to actually answer the question. If yours isn’t here, call or use the contact page, a person answers both.
The displays
- What exactly is in a Pumpkin'd display?
- Pumpkins. Only pumpkins, that is the whole idea. Everything we bring is real pumpkins, in four sizes, blending classic orange with heirloom varieties in cream, sage green, blush, tan and slate blue. We don't sell hay bales, cornstalks, wreaths or plastic props, and we won't pad a display with them: one beautiful thing, done properly, reads richer than a porch full of everything. If you already have mums out or lanterns by the door, we design around them. Plenty of our porches have both, and a display should suit the house it arrives at rather than fight it. Four sizes to choose from, from ten pumpkins up to thirty and beyond, each at one all-inclusive price.
- Can you match my house colors or a style I have in mind?
- Yes, and it is one of the first things we look at. We choose varieties whose colors flatter the house: muted sages and creams against cedar shake, warm bronzes against white trim, deep oranges against dark doors. Tell us about the house and any preferences in the booking form's porch notes and we design to it.
Pricing & deposits
- How does the pricing actually work?
- By size, and all-inclusive. The four displays are $199, $279, $349 and from $499, and each price covers the pumpkins, hand-selected for you, plus the design and styling of the display, delivery to your home, and professional installation. The displays page breaks each price down so you can see what it is made of. Half of your total is due as a deposit to reserve your install week, and the balance before your install day. There is no hourly rate, no per-pumpkin charge, and no design, delivery or setup fee added at checkout.
- What does the deposit do?
- It reserves your install week. The deposit is half your total and is credited in full against the price. The other half is due before your install day rather than after it, so your porch is settled before we arrive. We install a set number of porches a week, so a week closes once it is full, and weeks are held in the order deposits arrive.
- Can I change my display after I have booked?
- Up to a point. Moving between sizes is usually fine while the date is still a week or more away, and the price simply becomes the new display's price. Closer than that we may already have selected your pumpkins. Call us. We would rather sort it out than have you live with the wrong size all season.
- How do I pay?
- At the checkout, by card. The price is set before you fill anything in, so there is no quote to wait for: choose your display and your week, pay the deposit, and your porch is booked in about a minute. The balance request comes by email with a secure card link once your day is confirmed. Prefer check, cash or Venmo? Say so and we will arrange it, and the numbers are the same however the money moves.
- Is the design included, or is it extra?
- Included, in every package price. The value breakdown on the displays page shows it as its own line so you can see what it is worth inside the number. In practice it means the display is composed rather than delivered: sizes stepped down your stairs, stacks built and balanced, color chosen against your trim and shingle, and the arrangement adjusted on site until it reads properly from the street. Nobody hands you a pile of pumpkins and drives away.
Installation
- Do I need to be home for the installation?
- No. Everything happens outside your front door. Most installs take about an hour, and plenty of customers come home to a finished porch. If your porch has quirks, a gate code or a dog or a step that wobbles, put it in the porch notes and we'll handle it.
- How long does an install take, and how do you decide the arrangement?
- About an hour for a standard display, longer for the largest porches. We design on site to the porch itself: stair displays run a pumpkin per tread with a cluster at the landing, deep covered porches take layered runs along the rail, stoops get one dense, tall composition that reads from the street. Sizes step down from large anchors to smalls at the edges, and color is spread so no two like pumpkins sit together.
The season
- When should I book, and when do you install?
- We take bookings from late summer and install from 6 September to 23 October, which is a short season on purpose: every porch is finished well before Halloween, and a display that goes up on the last day still has the whole of the month it was bought for. You choose your week on the booking form and we confirm the day within it. The last week of September and the first of October go first, so booking early is the safe move.
- How long will the display look good?
- Uncarved, whole pumpkins on a porch in our fall climate typically hold four to eight weeks, longer for thick-skinned heirlooms and a bit less for anything in all-day direct sun. We place stems-on, unwashed-in-wax fruit and set pumpkins on their bases with airflow, which is most of the battle. Pumpkins are farm produce and they do weather, so we don't put a guarantee on any individual one. If something doesn't look right during the season, tell us and we'll come and take a look.
The pumpkins
- What are heirloom pumpkins, and which varieties do you use?
- Heirlooms are the old, open-pollinated varieties grown for beauty and character as much as size: the green and blue-gray ones, the deeply ribbed cheese pumpkins, the porcelain whites, the blush French fairytales. Which of them go into a given display is your designer's call, made the week of your install from the best of what the season is actually growing. That judgment is the service, and it is why a display looks composed rather than ordered. Our heirloom guide walks through the families of shape and color we design with.
- Do you take the pumpkins away at the end of the season?
- Only if you ask us to. End-of-season removal is the one separate service we offer, one flat fee at any size: check it on the booking form and we come back in November, clear every pumpkin off your porch and take them with us, so nothing goes to your curb and nothing sits in your trash. Leave it off and the pumpkins are yours to keep or compost. One thing to be clear about either way: a display is decorative. Our pumpkins are selected for looks and for how they weather, they spend weeks outdoors on a front step, and they are not intended for eating.