NYBG Celebrates The Orchid Show by Jeff Leatham

On view through May 1 at the New York Botanical Garden is a special exhibition by the celebrity floral designer Jeff Leatham. Entitled “The Orchid Show: Jeff Leatham’s Kaleidoscope,” the show picks up where its original exhibition left off—in 2020, with its timing cut short due to the global pandemic. 

For the garden’s 19th presentation this season, the designer created a dazzling installation in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory to accompany a not-miss kaleidoscopic tunnel of lights.

On February 24 at The Plaza hotel, guests gathered to celebrate the opening of this spectacular show with NYBG’s annual Orchid Dinner, surrounded by Leatham’s friends and family and the garden’s partners and directors. The night’s kick-off began with cocktails and the sale of rare orchids, which benefited the garden’s programs in horticulture, botanical research, and children’s education.

After, guests partook in a tour of the imaginative tablescapes in the room, designed by renowned national talent, including Javier Burkle, Calvert Crary, Keiko Ellis, Grace Fuller Marroquin, Michael Gonzalez, Julie Kantrowitz, Jérôme LaMaar, Manscapers, among others.

For the event, the garden was supported by Guerlain and Hearst as key sponsors, as well as a board of dedicated chair members, like Maureen K. Chilton, Cecile Lochard, Martha Stewart, Tina and Steven R. Swartz, Julia and Edward Weld, and more.

Notable attendees—including Leigh Lezark, Wes Gordon, Paul Arnhold, Gillian Hearst, Fernando Garcia, Laura Kim, Pom Klementieff, James Cusati Moyer, Grace Fuller Marroquin, Katini Yamaoka, and Adam Perry—then heard remarks by Leatham and directors, enjoyed a multi-course meal, and danced until the late hours to music by The Misshapes.