FEATURE-ARTICLE

One Million Sunflowers

ONE MILLION SUNFLOWERS

The vision for Lakeview Village is to create spaces and places for the neighbourhood to come together and bring joy to the everyday. It’s about animating a site by the lake that has been inaccessible for decades. It’s about providing new opportunities for people of all ages and stages to interact with nature and engage with the great outdoors. It’s about giving native species an opportunity to once again thrive and grow to the benefit of the entire community.

Beginning in 2019, we planted one million sunflowers for four consecutive summers near our award-winning Discovery Centre. This highly immersive natural experience and sustainability initiative brought thousands of people from across Mississauga and the GTA to connect with nature and a part of the waterfront that has been inaccessible for decades.

This initiative grew to include new recreational opportunities that showcased the beauty of life by the lake. We repurposed the 1,600 feet of artist-driven hoarding that surrounded our Discovery Centre to create an artist trail, guiding individuals from our sales centre toward outdoor art installations across the site. Chairs and benches – crafted by local sawmiller Sawmill Sid, who re-purposes wood into beautiful creations – line the trail giving people a chance to exchange ideas, build relationships, take in views of the lake, and immerse themselves in nature. We also built a recreation field open for community use - a place where pick-up games of soccer can be played with friends while families enjoy a picnic.

From our one million sunflowers to a variety of other incredible community amenities, we showcased that Lakeview Village is a place to immerse yourself in nature, strengthen your sense of community, and feel connected to a lake that refreshes the soul year-round.

SUNFLOWER FACTS

To make way for the construction of more homes for more people, our sunflower program has officially concluded – but our commitment to sustainability and a nature-first approach remains central to the future vision for Lakeview Village. You can still explore some of the most interesting facts about these fascinating blooms.

The sunflower is a native species found as far back in our history as 3,000 BCE.
These flowers attract bees because of the high-quality protein in their nectar.
They help bees survive and pollinate other plants. This in turn helps strengthen local wildlife.
Sunflowers attract birds who eat harmful bugs while creating a windbreak for other plants.
They are “phytoremediators.” This is a solar-powered soil stabilization technique that supports native restoration and nature conservancy.
Sunflowers are made up of thousands of teeny flowers. The iconic yellow petals and fuzzy brown centres are actually individual flowers themselves.
Their name is derived from the Greek words “helios” for sun and “anthos” for flower. These Sunflowers exhibit a unique trait called “heliotropism,” where they turn toward the sun at all times of the day. They’ll start the day facing east and end it facing west.
There are 70 species of sunflowers.