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.

As the initiative evolved, it grew to include new recreational opportunities that showcased the beauty of life by the lake. We repurposed 1,600 feet of artist-driven hoarding surrounding the Discovery Centre to create an outdoor artist trail, guiding visitors from the sales centre to temporary art installations across the site. Locally crafted chairs and benches – created by Sawmill Sid using repurposed wood – lined the trail, offering places to gather, reflect, and enjoy the views of the lake. We also built a recreation field for community use, where families picnicked and neighbours played pick-up games under the open sky.

These spaces were always designed to be temporary, and they’ve now closed to make way for the next phase of development. From our fields of sunflowers to the artist trail and recreation field, each experience played a meaningful role in reconnecting people to this land, and reminded us that Lakeview Village is, and will continue to be, a place to connect with nature, community, and 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.