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EVENT REPORT   04.25.07 12:00 AM PRINT | SEND TO A FRIEND |
Seasons Set the Mood for Horticultural Gala
Designers cooked up a crop of different looks to match the four-seasons theme, interpreting a single season or combining many.
You can’t blame global warming for the mixture of spring, summer, autumn, and winter inside Guastavino’s last Tuesday, April 17. Thirty-three designers interpreted the four seasons, this year’s theme for the Horticultural Society of New York’s Flowers & Design fund-raiser. While some tables referred to only one part of the year, others married aspects of all four.
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PHOTO GALLERY

Verde Custom Flowers’ playful summer setting—a field of wheatgrass dotted with artist Leon Joosen’s paper butterflies—contrasted with the sleek feel of the table’s black furniture. -
Verde Custom Flowers’ playful summer setting—a field of wheatgrass dotted with artist Leon Joosen’s paper butterflies—contrasted with the sleek feel of the table’s black furniture.
Susan Edgar’s wholly original centerpiece was a large revolving tower with seasonal flowers on each of its four faces. Surrounding the spire, diners got their own individual tables: fabric-covered platforms placed over enormous ceramic planters. Each seasonally hued table had crisscrossed garden gloves as a place mat. -
Susan Edgar’s wholly original centerpiece was a large revolving tower with seasonal flowers on each of its four faces. Surrounding the spire, diners got their own individual tables: fabric-covered platforms placed over enormous ceramic planters. Each seasonally hued table had crisscrossed garden gloves as a place mat.
A fanciful leaf-covered umbrella dominated the summery table by Studio Sweet Pea. Little lanterns hung over the table from the leafy structure, and the backs of chairs got special treatment, too: foliage-patterned beach towels. -
A fanciful leaf-covered umbrella dominated the summery table by Studio Sweet Pea. Little lanterns hung over the table from the leafy structure, and the backs of chairs got special treatment, too: foliage-patterned beach towels.
Flora New York creatively rolled napkins around stalks of bamboo at each place setting. (A single calla lily stem also dotted the back of each guest’s chair.) -
Flora New York creatively rolled napkins around stalks of bamboo at each place setting. (A single calla lily stem also dotted the back of each guest’s chair.)
Renny & Reed’s year-round environment included tall branches of spring dogwood that rose from each corner, summer grass, and fall shades of brown and gold in the intersecting table runners on a raw cedar table, a nod to winter. -
Renny & Reed’s year-round environment included tall branches of spring dogwood that rose from each corner, summer grass, and fall shades of brown and gold in the intersecting table runners on a raw cedar table, a nod to winter.
DeJuan Stroud played with color and pattern, using solid acid green on the table and alternating napkins in black-and-white houndstooth and citrus-colored polka dots. A lamp with a cubelike filigreed flower-motif shade rose out of the center of the setting. -
DeJuan Stroud played with color and pattern, using solid acid green on the table and alternating napkins in black-and-white houndstooth and citrus-colored polka dots. A lamp with a cubelike filigreed flower-motif shade rose out of the center of the setting.
LMD Floral Events Interiors lined the banquet table with unique botanic specimens like black sea fans and branches covered in lichen and used a mirrored top to create an aquariumlike, watery effect. -
LMD Floral Events Interiors lined the banquet table with unique botanic specimens like black sea fans and branches covered in lichen and used a mirrored top to create an aquariumlike, watery effect.
L’Olivier cleverly used typically spring flowers—yellow tulips—in different stages of growth to represent all four seasons. Enclosed within each napkin was a single unopened flower (bulb and all) to represent early spring. -
L’Olivier cleverly used typically spring flowers—yellow tulips—in different stages of growth to represent all four seasons. Enclosed within each napkin was a single unopened flower (bulb and all) to represent early spring.
Prudence Designs turned its table into a color-by-numbers piece. Individual watercolor sets sat at each place setting (holding name cards) so guests could paint their choice of season on the white canvas of the tabletop and chair coverings. -
Prudence Designs turned its table into a color-by-numbers piece. Individual watercolor sets sat at each place setting (holding name cards) so guests could paint their choice of season on the white canvas of the tabletop and chair coverings.
Author Abbie Zabar created a harvest table with bronze casts of farmer Amy Goldman’s heirloom pumpkins, gourds, and squash. Doubling as placecards, Zabar’s calligraphed dinner menus topped each guest’s place setting. -
Author Abbie Zabar created a harvest table with bronze casts of farmer Amy Goldman’s heirloom pumpkins, gourds, and squash. Doubling as placecards, Zabar’s calligraphed dinner menus topped each guest’s place setting.
   
Horticultural Society of New York's Flowers & Design Benefit

Audiovisual Production BML Blackbird
Catering, Venue Guastavino's
Decor Design Castle & Pierpont
Decor Design Renny & Reed
Decor Design Mille Fiori, Flowers and Events
Decor Design Philip Baloun Studio Designs
Decor Design David Beahm Design
Decor Design Flowers, Sticks and Stones: Designs by Susan Edgar
Decor Design Cornucopia Flowers
Decor Design Prudence Designs
Decor Design DeJuan Stroud Inc.
Decor Design Magnolia Flowers & Events
Decor Design Van Vliet & Trap
Decor Design Gotham Gardens
Decor Design LMD Floral Events Interiors
Decor Design Studio Sweet Pea
Decor Design Chestnuts in the Tuileries
Decor Design Katrina Parris Flowers
Decor Design Flora New York
Decor Design Celebrate Flowers
Decor Design L'Olivier Downtown
Decor Design Posies
Decor Design FlowerSchool New York LLC
Decor Design Verde Flowers
Pumpkin Carving Hugh McMahon
Security Global Security Services

Utilizing color, patterns, and seasonally indicative plants (as well as a sense of vitality), designers not only created pretty settings but also presented an assortment of useful ideas for centerpieces, place cards, chairs, and napkins. Maureen Ferry, the society’s director of special events, oversaw the event and worked with design chair Chris Giftos (the former events chief of the Metropolitan Museum of Art), who supervised the designs. The night’s honorees included Giftos, lauded for his 40-plus years of work, as well as interior designers Tony Ingrao and Randy Kemper and benefactors Harvey and Constance Krueger. While gazing upon the various designs, guests dined on Guastavino's menu of grilled vegetable terrine with pesto and goat cheese, followed by herb-crusted rack of lamb served with a truffle mascarpone polenta cake. The event grossed $350,000 for the organization.

Mark Mavrigian

Posted 04.25.07

Photos: Marina Fragoso Senra for BizBash

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