Plant rentals for events · Chicago

Beautiful plants for your Chicago event. We handle the rest.

We rent plants for conferences, trade shows, launches, and corporate events across Chicago and the suburbs. Your plants are grown, delivered, and installed by our Midwest partner — so they arrive fresh and local, styled by the shop that's built stages for Meta, Hyundai, KPMG, and Reuters.

Fully insured Events from $3,000 to $40,000 The Loop to the suburbs
Inside The Preserve's San Jose shop, with peach walls, boucle chairs, and tall rental plants
Our shop in San JoseWhere every rental plant is chosen and styled.

Past clients include

Meta Splunk Cisco San Jose Earthquakes Cathay Innovation Reuters OpenAI QuantumScape KPMG Hyundai
The work

A look at our recent work.

Every photo here is real: our plants at events we've styled, staged homes, and our own shop. No stock photos.

Two outdoor event bars with backlit bottle shelves at dusk, a tall fiddle-leaf fig between them and ferns at their bases
Event barsFerns and a fiddle-leaf fig between two bars at an evening reception.
Dense corner grouping of bird of paradise, monstera, dracaena, and snake plant in ceramic pots
The collectionBirds of paradise, monstera, and dracaena, ready for their next event.
Kentia palm in a dark planter finishing a staged living room with framed art and a marble coffee table
StagingA kentia palm in a staged living room.
Corporate event floor with fiddle-leaf figs framing the stage and lounge seating
ConferenceFiddle-leaf figs framing the stage at a corporate all-hands.
Full service, start to finish

What we take care of.

Your job is to tell us the room and the look. Ours is that the plants show up on time, hold up all week, and vanish before your move-out deadline.

No. 1

Delivery & install

We work your venue's move-in window — dock times, freight elevators, early calls — and place every plant to your floor plan.

No. 2

On-site styling

Before doors open we walk the room with you and move anything that isn't sitting right. Rooms always read differently once they're built.

No. 3

Pickup & teardown

We collect everything inside your strike window. Nothing to store, nothing to return, nothing left on the floor for your GC to deal with.

No. 4

Insured & papered

Fully insured, with COIs sent straight to your venue in whatever format it demands. Convention floors and corporate campuses are picky; we handle it.

Where we work

Venues across Chicago and the suburbs.

Convention floors, ballrooms, museums, lofts, and campuses. If your venue isn't here, it almost certainly still works — ask.

McCormick PlaceTrade shows and conferences in all four buildings — Lakeside Center, North, South, and West — worked to your GC's move-in schedule.
Navy PierFestival Hall, the Aon Grand Ballroom, and receptions along the lakefront.
theMARTShowroom events, NeoCon week, and the design-industry calendar on the river.
Museums & landmarksThe Field Museum, the Shedd, the Art Institute's event spaces, Union Station's Great Hall, and the Chicago Cultural Center.
Loft & warehouse venuesFulton Market and the West Loop — Morgan Manufacturing, Revel Fulton Market, and the gallery circuit.
Hotel ballroomsThe Hilton Chicago, Palmer House, the Langham, the Drake, and the Marriott Marquis at McCormick Square.
Arenas & stadiumsWintrust Arena, the United Center, and event days at Soldier Field.
Rosemont & O'HareThe Donald E. Stephens Convention Center and the airport-corridor conference hotels.
Corporate offices & campusesThe Loop, Fulton Market, and the suburban campuses from Oak Brook to Schaumburg.

Delivering across

The LoopRiver NorthStreetervilleFulton MarketWest LoopGold CoastLincoln ParkWicker ParkSouth LoopHyde ParkEvanstonRosemontOak BrookNapervilleSchaumburgWider Chicagoland by arrangement

Our eye, grown close to your venue.

The Preserve is a design-led plant shop in San Jose. We don't truck plants 2,100 miles to Chicago — your material is sourced, staged, and installed by our Midwest growing partner, from the region's own greenhouse belt, to our spec and our styling. You get local, fresh plants and a shorter replacement drive, with the same shop deciding what goes where.

The process

How it works, in four steps.

Tell us about the space

Dates, venue, booth or room number, and the look you want. A floor plan helps; a few inspiration photos are plenty if you don't have one.

10 minutes of your time

Get a proposal

An itemized proposal with photos of the actual plants, suggested placements, and one clear price — including the Chicago delivery and labor line.

$3,000 event minimum

We install & style

Our crew works your move-in window and fine-tunes the room with you before doors open.

You approve, we adjust

We pick everything up

We strike and haul everything out before your move-out deadline. The plants go back into rotation, not a dumpster.

Nothing for you to clean up
Service area

Evanston to Hyde Park,
and west through the suburbs.

We cover the city end to end, plus the O'Hare corridor and the western suburbs. Your plants are grown and staged by our Midwest partner, so nothing travels further than it should before it reaches your venue.

Downtown & the lakefrontThe Loop, the Michigan Avenue hotel ballrooms, Navy Pier, and the Museum Campus.
McCormick SquareAll four McCormick Place buildings, Wintrust Arena, and the Marriott Marquis.
River North & the West LooptheMART, the Fulton Market lofts, and the gallery venues.
The suburbsRosemont and the O'Hare corridor, Evanston and the North Shore, and west through Oak Brook, Naperville, and Schaumburg.

Somewhere else in Chicagoland? Ask. We travel for the right event.

Also serving

We work the Bay Area out of our own San Jose shop, with written guides to how load-in, styling, and strike actually go at the rooms we are in most.

Good to know

Chicago questions.

The things Chicago planners ask us most, so you can scope your event without waiting on an email.

Do you serve all of Chicagoland?

Yes. We cover the city end to end — the Loop, River North, Fulton Market, the lakefront, and the neighborhoods — plus Evanston and the North Shore, Rosemont and the O'Hare corridor, and the western suburbs through Oak Brook, Naperville, and Schaumburg. Wider Chicagoland is available by arrangement. Tell us your venue and we'll confirm same day.

Which Chicago venues do you deliver to?

McCormick Place across all four buildings; Navy Pier's Festival Hall and Aon Grand Ballroom; theMART; the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont; Wintrust Arena and the United Center; the Field Museum, the Shedd, and the Art Institute's event spaces; Union Station's Great Hall and the Chicago Cultural Center; the Fulton Market and West Loop lofts; and hotel ballrooms from the Hilton Chicago and Palmer House to the Langham. Loading docks, freight elevators, and 5am load-ins are a normal part of our week.

How much does event plant rental cost in Chicago?

Pricing is per plant, and one rental price covers your event for up to three days. There's a $3,000 minimum per event. Delivery and setup are billed separately based on your venue, your move-in window, and the size of the install. Most Chicago conference and activation builds land between $3,000 and $12,000; our largest build to date was $40,000 across a full convention floor.

How far ahead should I book a Chicago event?

Four to six weeks is ideal, and larger builds want more. Chicago gets tight around the big spring and fall show runs at McCormick Place and in Rosemont, NeoCon week in June, the late-November radiology run, and December's holiday-party season, so booked-out dates cluster there. We can often still take rush requests — ask and we'll tell you straight away what's possible for your date.

Can you work at McCormick Place?

Yes, in all four buildings — Lakeside Center, North, South, and West. We work to the show's move-in and move-out schedule and coordinate with your general contractor and the venue's required labor — McCormick Place runs on union crews, and we plan for that rather than argue with it. Send us your exhibitor manual and booth number with your request and we'll build the quote around the real dock times rather than guessing.

Our event is outdoors — will the plants hold up in Chicago weather?

Yes, if we choose for it. Chicago summers are warm and humid — most tropicals are happy outside — but the lakefront wind is real, so rooftops, piers, and plaza decks want sturdy material in ballasted pots. Winter is the opposite problem: cold that can damage a tropical in the minutes it takes to cross a loading dock, so cold-month deliveries travel protected in heated trucks and anything tender stays indoors. Tell us whether the space is covered, exposed, or on the water and we'll spec accordingly. We don't staff on-site watering during events, so this choice matters and we make it up front.

Do you do brand activations, launches, and production work?

Yes, and they're some of our favorite jobs. Activations, press days, pop-ups, and launches in the West Loop's lofts, galleries, and warehouse venues all work the same way: send the layout and the look, we send a proposal with photos of the actual plants. We're an events business, not a set-dressing house — we rent and install rather than sell or build.

What does full service include?

Delivery, installation and styling to your floor plan, a walk-through with you before doors open, then full teardown and pickup after. You never lift, store, or return anything. The one thing we don't do is stay on site to water during your event, so we pick and prep plants that look their best for the whole rental.

Are you insured? Can you provide a COI for my Chicago venue?

Yes. We're fully insured for every event and provide Certificates of Insurance on request. Send us your venue's insurance requirements — most Chicago convention and museum venues have specific limits and additional-insured language — and we'll handle the paperwork directly with them.

What if a plant gets damaged during my event?

We swap it. Our Midwest material is sourced and staged locally, so replacements come from inside the region rather than from California.

How do deposits and payment work?

A 50% deposit up front so we can source the exact plants and planters your event needs, and the remaining 50% one week before the event. We invoice — no deposit is taken before you've seen and approved the proposal.

Do you rent plants for home staging in Chicago?

Yes. Stagers and listing agents are a real part of our business. The same per-plant pricing covers a single statement tree in an entry or greenery through a whole listing, and we work to your showing calendar rather than a single event date.

Still wondering something? Just ask →

Get in touch

Tell us about
the space.

If you'd like us on your Chicago event, fill out the form or email us directly. We cover the city and the suburbs, from the North Shore to Hyde Park and west through Naperville, with wider Chicagoland by arrangement.

Heads up: we have an order minimum of $3,000 per event. The Preserve's reception desk beneath an arch of ferns and pothos, with a neon sign on a peach wall

A real person replies within one business day.