NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDENS Conservatory Ball Ensures Flowers Will Bloom Again By Roger Webster Photos by Thos Robinson/PMc AYOR Michael Bloomberg, Dina Merrill and Ted Hartley, generous Ann and Charles B. Johnson, Deborah Norville and Karl Wellner were among the 650 guests at the New York Botanical Garden 28th annual Conservatory Ball in the Bronx. Benefit chairmen Friederike Biggs, Mai Harrison and Jeanne Jones and honorary chairman Honoré Wamsler greeted them in the Perennial Garden. The peonies, foxgloves, roses, orchids, and irises were singing refrains of gratitude into the gorgeous evening air when they heard president Gregory Loring announce that the ball had raised $1.5 million to help ensure that their fabulous show will entertain for another year. Among those enjoying dinner and dancing in the Conservatory tent: Julia Koch, Jessie Araskog, Pamela Fiori, Cynthia and Dan Lufkin, Susan and Coleman Burke, Wendy Carduner, CeCe and Lee Black, Joanne and Roberto de Guardiola, Somers and Jonathan Farkas, Audrey and Martin Gruss, Andrea Stark, Patricia Duff, Muffy and Donald Miller, Howard Sobel, Royce Pinkwater, Pat Patterson, Debbie and Billy Bancroft, Helen Schifter and Ann Nitze, as well as designers Nicole Miller, Maggie Norris and Steven Stollman. |