We've looked out at the same corner of Madison Avenue for a long time, long enough to decide that the neighborhood has about six good weeks a year that nobody plans for. They start on the first cold morning in October and they're over the week before Thanksgiving. The light goes gold, the park turns, the Marathon comes up First Avenue, and for once the whole Upper East Side seems to be outdoors at the same time. This is how we'd spend those weeks, and what we'd send to whom.
Marathon Sunday, November 1
The TCS New York City Marathon is Sunday, November 1. Runners come off the Queensboro Bridge at 59th and head straight up First Avenue, which turns the East Side into the loudest, happiest four hours of the year. It's also the morning the clocks go back, so if you're spectating you get an extra hour of sleep and still beat the lead pack to 59th Street.
If someone you know is running, send the flowers to their apartment, not the finish line. Nobody wants to carry a vase 26.2 miles plus the walk home from the park. Saturday delivery means the flowers are waiting when they limp in; Monday means a surprise after the long sleep. Either way, go bright. Erly Riser, from $125, peach roses and gerberas and flame-orange callas, is the right amount of noise.
The park turns, mid-October into November
Our end of Central Park is the quieter north end. The two walks we'd send you on: the Conservatory Garden at 105th and Fifth, and the loop around the Reservoir, where the trees double in the water and the runners won't stop for you. Peak color usually lands somewhere between late October and mid-November, and it moves around from year to year.
If you're hosting someone who came in to see it, the host gift is obvious: fall color in a vase, after the leaves are down. Harvest Bounty, from $200, is October in a glass cube.
Museum Mile in a sweater
Fifth Avenue from the Met at 82nd up to El Museo del Barrio at 104th is the best walk in the city in October, and it runs one block west of our door. The Jewish Museum, the Cooper Hewitt and the Guggenheim are all within a ten-minute walk of the shop, and the Neue Galerie is a little farther down at 86th. Go on a weekday morning. If you're picking up flowers for a dinner that night, we're open until 7 on weekdays and pickup is free.
Somebody's in the hospital
Sometimes the reason you're in the neighborhood is Mount Sinai, or Lenox Hill, or NewYork-Presbyterian. Mount Sinai is a few blocks north of us, and we wrote a page just for it. The short version: give us the patient's full name, the room number, the floor or wing and a phone number, and order by 1 PM ET for same-day delivery. We call the hospital before every delivery to make sure the patient can receive flowers (intensive care units often don't allow them). Send something low and clean that fits on a tray table. Light Breeze, white and green in a cube, is the one. Our hospital delivery guide covers the other hospitals, and our get-well flowers are all here.
Halloween is a Saturday this year
The townhouse blocks take Halloween seriously, and the stoops with the best displays are usually the ones with kids in the house. If you're invited to a Halloween dinner, resist the orange. A dark, textured piece, antique hydrangea with chocolate callas and berries, looks like the season without looking like a costume.
Then it's Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is Thursday, November 26, and the shop is open that day until 4 PM. If you're sending a centerpiece to a host on the Upper East Side, earlier is kinder: order a few days ahead and it's on the table before anyone rings the bell. Our centerpieces are made for exactly that. For hours the rest of that week and the last order time for holiday delivery, call the shop at 212-289-1677.
Getting flowers through the door up here
A lot of buildings on the Upper East Side have a doorman. What helps: the recipient's name the way the building knows it (not the nickname), the apartment number, and a phone number. If nobody's home, we call the recipient, then you, to set up another time. The fees, zones and timing are on our Upper East Side delivery page, and if you're in Carnegie Hill, we're your neighborhood florist in the literal sense.
Order flowers on the Upper East Side
Order by 3 PM ET (1 PM for hospitals and offices) for same-day delivery anywhere in Manhattan, $15. Shop fall flowers, or call 212-289-1677. We're at 1379 Madison Avenue, on the southeast corner of 96th Street: Monday to Friday 9 to 7, Saturday 9 to 6, Sunday 10 to 6.
Two questions we get every fall
Is there a florist near Mount Sinai Hospital?
Yes. Jerome Florists is at 96th and Madison, a few blocks south of the main Mount Sinai campus, and we deliver there seven days a week.
When does the NYC Marathon go through the Upper East Side?
On Sunday, November 1, 2026, runners come off the Queensboro Bridge onto First Avenue at 59th Street, and the bulk of the field passes through the Upper East Side from late morning into early afternoon.