City Guide: NYC Flower District

*Update: Featured in The Everygirl's "The Top 12 Non-Touristy Things to Do in NYC"

One of my favorite parts of moving to NYC has been finding hidden gems around the city. Although Manhattan is hardly "undiscovered," there are still certain pockets of the island that tourists have yet to commandeer. One such place is the NYC Flower District—a small oasis in NoMad stretching a city block between 6th and 7th Ave on 28th Street—where sidewalks momentarily turn into a colorful urban jungle on the weekdays. 

I'm lucky enough to work only a couple blocks away and often take the scenic route on lunch breaks to escape the city buzz under the shade of a few fiddle leaf fig trees. It's a pedestrian's dream—a wholesale district with character. Flowers spilling onto the sidewalk, shop owners beckoning passerby into their shrubbery-filled shops, and adorable carts of succulents tempting me to add to my ever-growing plant collection. 

And of course, it wouldn't be New York without a random guy and his bubble machine diligently greeting passersby at the corner of 28th and 6th. An endearing gatekeeper between the city's secret garden and the busy streets of NoMad.

-M