Designers are using plants and foliage as the main attraction in centerpieces, a cost-effective look that calls for fewer flowers.

Van Wyck & Van Wyck produced this year's Friends of the High Line benefit in New York. The centerpieces consisted of small burlap sacks filled with air ferns and other plants, which guests could take home with them.
Photo: Nadia Chaudhury/BizBash

Matthew David Hopkins of 360 Design Events placed bowls of floating candles atop vegetative green roofing tiles at the 9/11 Memorial benefit.
Photo: Courtesy of 360 Design Events

David Stark’s table designs at the fall gala for New Yorkers for Children included high and low glass containers filled with moss, ferns, and candles.
Photo: Billy Farrell/BFAnyc.com

Clover Chadwick of Dandelion Ranch in Los Angeles created a sculptural arrangement using succulents.
Photo: Courtesy of Dandelion Ranch

At MoMa’s Party in the Garden in May, designer David Monn topped tables with leafy topiaries and low arrangements of dianthus and viburnum.
Photo: Nadia Chaudhury/BizBash

At Chicago’s Harris Theater gala in June, Bill Heffernan used centerpieces of ferns and freesia as part of the event’s moonlit-forest look.
Photo: Robert Carl

In September, Los Angeles floral designer Eric Buterbaugh set topiary balls on beds of wheatgrass at the Entertainment Industry Foundation’s Women’s Cancer Research Foundation luncheon celebrating the Nancy Short lecture series.
Photo: Alex J. Berliner/ABImages

Fox celebrated its fall television lineup with a casino-style event in Los Angeles. YourBash! and Sada's Flowers collaborated on the event's shabby chic look, which included simple arrangements of succulents decorating the tables.
Photo: Sean Twomey/2me Studios

Sutra International Design used leafy branches to make centerpieces that resembled miniature trees for the Palm Beach Heart Ball in February.
Photo: Lucian Capehart

At the Lowline "Anti-Gala," producers Van Wyck & Van Wyck topped tables with centerpieces comprised of potted rosemary, mint, geranium leaves, and olive branches.
Photo: Andrew Martin/BizBash

For the island-themed CTIA Wireless Foundation’s Achievement Awards dinner, held in Washington in July, florist Volanni used banana leaves in tall, thin glass cylinders.
Photo: Eli Turner