palmtree

NYC is a beautiful place and where I am living now! Not a lot of plant nursuries in the area. There's tucked away farms in Califon, New Jersey but its about an hour and 15 minutes from Manhattan and would cost a fortune by Taxi. If you rented a car it could be worth it, but still it takes an entire day out of your trip since its in a pretty rural area with nothing else very fun nearby. But if you want to see some nice plants the central park zoo does have some musa basjoos and other bananas as well as large crape myrtles, monkey puzzle trees, agaves, camellias (not in bloom in the summer), and some very small windmill palms and needle palms. Its not a huge zoo but since you probably will spend some time in central park, its worth a visit. You can probably spend about an hour there, but I warn you that the zoo really isnt very large.

I hope this helped a little. You wont find any very good nurseries in Manhattan but staten island is a ferry ride away (its a free ferry ride) and there are some nurseries there but they arent very accessible by public transportation since its a suburban island (although is still considered New York City. Maybe if you want to head to the beaches in New Jersey during your stay you will see a nursery. If you are going to stay at a beach, Long Branch, NJ has some coconut palms and queen palms planted as annuals along the beach as well as some washingtonias. But its a pretty good distance far from the city.

Good luck!
-Alex

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Location: New York City, zone 7b