Every October the same porch shows up on a phone: pumpkins stacked three deep, mums in the right rust, a wreath that looks heavier than it is. Then you try it on a west-facing stoop in Plantation.
Every October the same porch shows up on a phone: pumpkins stacked three deep, mums in the right rust, a wreath that looks heavier than it is. Then you try it on a west-facing stoop in Plantation, it rains at four, the stone stays wet overnight, and by the second week one pumpkin has gone soft and taken two neighbors with it.
That is not bad taste. That is produce in a South Florida October.
We will not promise a pumpkin lasts until Halloween. Some will. Some will not. The job is to stack the odds, and to build so that when one fails you can pull it without the whole arrangement collapsing. That is the difference between fall porch decorating that still looks like a porch, and a pile you pretend not to see from the driveway.
A pumpkin is a fruit with a shelf life. Up north, that shelf life is October. In Broward it is heat, humidity, afternoon rain, and a stone step that holds water like a plate.
Sit a thin-skinned pumpkin on a warm, wet paver and the bottom is the first thing to go. It softens, it splits, it molds. The ones above it settle into the gap. By the time you notice, you are not replacing a pumpkin. You are rebuilding the steps.
That is the material, not the workmanship. Portico Seasonal uses real pumpkins because they are what the season looks like. We also tell you the truth about them before you book.
If you remember one thing about a pumpkin porch in Broward, remember this: shade beats everything else we can do with fruit.
On a shaded, covered porch a display often holds the whole season. On a west-facing set of unshaded steps in a wet October, it will not. Afternoon sun cooks the fruit. Then the storm hits, the stone stays wet, and you have a greenhouse on your stoop overnight.
That is why older Plantation is easier than it looks. The oak canopy across Jacaranda and the established blocks is a real advantage in October. Covered entries hold a display. Plantation Acres is a different problem — a compact doorway disappears on a deep frontage, so those homes need height and mass — but the trees and the porch roof often buy the fruit time it would not get on a bare western stoop.
Davie splits the same way. Closer-in streets have conventional covered entries. West of Flamingo the fronts are wide and the approaches are long, so hay, stalks, and real height are what make them read from the road. They do not magically make a pumpkin last on unshaded stone.
We favor covered entries where the design allows. We cannot invent a roof you do not have. If your steps face west and take the afternoon uncovered, we will say so, and we will not pretend the fruit will look the same on October 30 as it did on install day.
We cannot make a pumpkin last. We can keep one failure from becoming the whole porch.
If something fails early, tell us. We are not going to argue with you about a pumpkin. We would rather swap it than have you living with a collapsed stack until November.
Heat and rain are half of it. The other half has teeth.
Squirrels, raccoons, iguanas, and possums all treat a pumpkin display as a buffet. In neighborhoods backing onto canals, lakes, or preserve land — a lot of west Broward — it is closer to a certainty than a risk.
The wildlife deterrent is $95. It is the cheapest insurance on the fall list, and the one people skip because the porch looked fine on install day. If your lot backs onto water or woods, add it. If you skip it and something chews a corner pumpkin, you already know how that stack was built: one hole, not a wreck. Still tell us.
Fall packages run $325 to $1,350. Custom work starts at $3,500. Design, materials, and install are in the package price. Delivery is a separate line by zone: Plantation, Davie, Cooper City, and west Miramar are Zone 1, no delivery fee. Most of the rest of Broward is Zone 2, $25.
The two in the middle are what most people book. Package 3 is $525 — a well-built entry with real depth on the steps, a wreath, and seasonal color. Package 2 is $800 for a full front porch. Oh My Gourd is $750, same scale as Package 2 in whites, creams, sage, and pale grey, for the houses where orange would fight the facade. Package 1 is $1,350 for the full front of the house. Package 4 is $325 for a tight doorway. Design is included except on the two smallest, where you can add it for $75.
Pickup and removal is $75 to $150 depending on package. Most clients add it. The alternative is you handling a pile of soft pumpkins in November.
About a week after Halloween we can come back for a Thanksgiving refresh: pull the Halloween-leaning pieces and anything that has gone soft, and rework what is left into a quieter harvest display through November. It is priced against what your porch actually needs, not as a second full install.
Fall orders close October 25. That is the last day we can source material and still install before Halloween. Installs run from late September through the weekend before Halloween, and the good weekend dates go first.
If you want fall porch decorating in Plantation, or a pumpkin porch anywhere in Broward, start with the house you actually have: the roof, the sun, the stone, and whether anything with a tail lives in the canal behind you. We design against that, not against a catalog photo.
Most installs run under two hours and you do not have to be home. We send a photo when it is done.
See the fall packages, or reserve a date. Call 954-787-4963. We call within one business day to lock in the install.
Price it in thirty seconds and book online. We call you within one business day to lock in your install date.
Reserve your date