Before the tulips start to bud on Manhattan’s Park Avenue, New Yorkers know they can get their floral fix at the New York Botanical Garden’s Annual Orchid show (on through April 23), curated this year by artist, landscape designer, and fashion darling Lily Kwong. But for those NYBG patrons who want even more orchids, there’s the annual Orchid Dinner fundraiser. The event takes place each February at the Plaza Hotel and is hosted in partnership with Guerlain, a beauty company that not only appreciates the wonders of the orchid (it’s a prime ingredient in their Orchidée Impériale collection), but is also committed its preservation, having reintroduced over 20,000 orchids to the TianZi reserve in China. At last night’s Orchid Dinner, over $800,000 was raised to support Garden’s global plant research, conservation, and education initiatives.
In addition to a sale of rare orchids, each year the event features 40 tables dressed in fantastical, large-scale orchid arrangements created by the country’s most innovative designers, florists, and landscape enthusiasts. The evening began with cocktails and the sale of exceptional and rare orchids, followed by a tour of all those imaginative tablescapes. Guests—including Pauline Chalamet, James Whiteside, Isabella Boylston, Markarian’s Ali O’Neil, and Angelica Hicks—had the opportunity to meet the designers and discover the inspiration behind their creations. A multi-course dinner began promptly thereafter, with an exclusive performance from Gina Alice, Guerlain’s “Orchidee Imperiale” global ambassador and a world-renowned pianist who serenaded the room with the strains of Claude Debussy.
“The exhibition design was my most autobiographical piece to date,” Kwong told the audience, which included her husband, comedian Nick Kroll. “It came from this deep meditation and exploration of my ancestral roots stretching back to Shanghai. So much of the piece was inspired by heirloom scrolls that were passed down by my grandparents to me. And we drew so much from the Chinese landscape community as well as Chinese learning design principles.”
At the dinner, guests also heard from Jennifer Bernstein, the CEO and William C. Steere Sr. President of the NYBG. She spoke of the Garden’s position as a world leader in advancing plant science. “We simply cannot address environmental challenges like climate change and biodiversity loss without a deep understanding of plants,” she urged. “And there is still so much that we don’t know.”
The evening celebrated the beauty and importance of orchids, as well as the Garden’s commitment to all things biodiversity.
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