I suggest Union square farmers market in the spring and summer...lts the green market and the #1 place in NYC with the greatest variety of plants, particularly culinary and medicinal herbs, fruits and vegies, and ornamental annuals and perienials. This time of year they won't have much but once the weather warms, it's a completely different story! I also suggest Lowes in Brooklyn as their turn over rate on plants and seeds is quite high. The Brooklyn botanical garden is my #1 suggestion for seeds. I would also suggest exploring the little shops of Chinatown. One can often find unusual Asian seeds in the spring. Li zing florist, although very very tiny, is one of my favorites places to shop in the winter. They carry lots of medicinal herbs, citrus, pomegranite, and figs all year round and at very resonable prices. Just be forewarned the place is super tiny but it really is a gem

I suggest Union square farmers market in the spring and summer...lts the green market and the #1 place in NYC with the greatest variety of plants, particularly culinary and medicinal herbs, fruits and vegies, and ornamental annuals and perienials. This time of year they won't have much but once the weather warms, it's a completely different story! I also suggest Lowes in Brooklyn as their turn over rate on plants and seeds is quite high. The Brooklyn botanical garden is my #1 suggestion for seeds. I would also suggest exploring the little shops of Chinatown. One can often find unusual Asian seeds in the spring. Li zing florist, although very very tiny, is one of my favorites places to shop in the winter. They carry lots of medicinal herbs, citrus, pomegranite, and figs all year round and at very resonable prices. Just be forewarned the place is super tiny but it really is a gem

I suggest Union square farmers market in the spring and summer...lts the green market and the #1 place in NYC with the greatest variety of plants, particularly culinary and medicinal herbs, fruits and vegies, and ornamental annuals and perienials. This time of year they won't have much but once the weather warms, it's a completely different story! I also suggest Lowes in Brooklyn as their turn over rate on plants and seeds is quite high. The Brooklyn botanical garden is my #1 suggestion for seeds. I would also suggest exploring the little shops of Chinatown. One can often find unusual Asian seeds in the spring. Li zing florist, although very very tiny, is one of my favorites places to shop in the winter. They carry lots of medicinal herbs, citrus, pomegranite, and figs all year round and at very resonable prices. Just be forewarned the place is super tiny but it really is a gem

I live in Queens and although I have a decent sized backyard, the front is sunnier. I grow all my veggies in containers in the front and side of my house and have had pretty good luck with that. I can fill the pots with fresh soil and compost each spring and there are less weeds in containers. Peppers seem to be especially happy grown in pots. I also grow eggplants and tomatoes -- determinate varieties do best since the space is limited. Last season I also was able to find cucumber seeds for a variety specifically meant for containers and they did pretty well. Hope this helps.

Really? Union Square is the best suggestion? There's one guy there who has a semi-decent selection of herbs, but the vegetable plants there, the options are so restricted/limited and there's almost never any kind of small produce varieties (like grape or cherry tomatoes, let alone smaller japanese style eggplants, and definitely not the mini bells I really want to find!

I was hoping someone would know of a place, even out on Long Island, that might be a proper nursery with a BIG variety, like ghost chilis, miniature bell peppers, a wide assortment of cherry tomatoes, currant tomatoes would be great, too - like the stuff I normally listed in Territorial Seed catalog, or even Burpee. (I've tried ordering from both, but the plants come so late and so tiny - a couple didn't even survive transit, and most didn't survive the spring.)

My ultimate wishlist for this spring - if you've ever seen ANY of these, PLEASE let me know where!!

Broccoli Raab
Rocky Cucumber (*tiny* 2-3 inch fruits)
Mexican Sour Gherkin
Ophelia eggplant (early, egg sized fruit)
Redbor or Red Russian Kale (these can be seeds)
Beetberry (strawberry spinach)
Miniature Bell peppers (red, yellow or chocolate, not picky)
early jalepenos
ghost (bhut jolokia) peppers
Indigo blue berries (cherry tomato)
Sunchocola cherry tomato
Baby Boomer cherry tomato
Italian Ice cherry tomato
Black Pearl cherry tomato
Esterina cherry tomato
chocolate cherry tomato
currant tomatoes (either red or white)

also debating whether or not to try one of those hanging planter walls on my fence for strawberries (more worried about squirrels :-/ )

It might be too late for this year, but your best bet for specialty/heirloom varieties is to wintersow for yourself.
The forums here: seed trade/ round robin/ wintersowing have lots of people who trade seeds... very generous and helpful gardenters.