A garage in Lake Ann, a truck, and a very particular eye for pumpkins.

Home & Hydrangea is two people. My wife designs and builds every arrangement we sell. I load the truck, drive it, and handle the parts of a business that involve spreadsheets.

For years she has done this for our own house — the porch every September, the whole place at Christmas — for no reason other than that she loves doing it. She's also the one who turns up early at other people's parties to help decorate and set up, because she'd rather be doing that than almost anything else in the room.

So we'll be straight with you: this is our first season taking orders. What you're hiring is someone who got good at this because she wanted to, not because it was ever a job.

We live here, so we build for the weather we actually get — a porch has to look perfect in early September and still be just as beautiful at the end of October. Our pumpkins and gourds are purchased locally. Materials are carefully curated because we know it has to withstand a northern Michigan autumn.

Nothing here is assembled from a catalog, and each porch arrangement will be unique. She builds each arrangement to complement the home it will be showcasing.

Local delivery only, for now. If you're outside our radius and you want one badly enough, write to us — sometimes the answer is yes. (She says I’m midwest nice.)