Two Southern vines, two different jobs

This is the vine we're known for and the one we move most, week after week. Fresh Southern Smilax is hand-cut and comes completely thornless and berry-free — that matters, because true wild-growing smilax carries thorns and berries that make it slow and unpleasant to install. Ours is selected and cleaned so it's ready to handle straight out of the box.

What sets it apart on an install is vine length. Each vine runs 8 to 10 feet, which is why it does things shorter greenery physically can't: continuous ceiling drops, unbroken staircase wraps, and long garland runs without visible joins. It has a looser, more natural drape with organic variation from stem to stem — exactly the quality that garden-style, boho and organic designs are built on.

It's harvested the day before it ships, hydrated, sealed in a moisture-locking bag and packed in a reinforced box, then sent overnight. Vase life is about 8 days kept cool and misted. Available year-round, including the April–June window when supply gets tight elsewhere.

Ceiling installs and hanging chandeliers. The 8–10 ft length is the whole reason this works — you get a continuous vertical drop without splicing.

Staircases and long banister runs. One vine can wrap a substantial section, so the finished run reads unbroken.

Wedding arches with movement. If you want the greenery to trail and look grown-in rather than tightly clipped, this is the texture that does it.

Maximum coverage per dollar. Because the vines are long, a single box goes further in linear feet than a denser, shorter-vine variety.

Off-season events. April through June is when smilax gets scarce. This is the variety we can keep supplied through that window.

Texas Smilax — also called Jackson Vine — is the other Southern classic, and it's a genuinely different material. The leaves are heart-shaped and the growth is denser, on shorter vines of roughly 4 to 8 feet.

The practical result: it reads full and uniform straight out of the box. You don't have to layer or double it to get coverage, which is what you want when the finish needs to look deliberate rather than wild. It's also thornless.

Peak harvest runs July through April. Vase life is about 6 days with proper care. It comes in 80 ft, 150 ft and 300 ft options.

Formal, structured arches. When the design calls for clean and full rather than loose and trailing.

Backdrops and photo walls. The density means fewer gaps to fill, so the wall reads solid faster.

Traditional Southern weddings. Jackson Vine is the vine that style is historically built on — for some clients, it's specifically what they're asking for.

Anywhere uniformity matters. Column wraps, symmetrical altar pieces, anything photographed close-up where variation would read as inconsistency.