Every summer, 96 jumbo flower baskets are raised along Portage Avenue. At over 200 pounds and measuring three feet in diameter, the flower baskets sit in brackets attached to street light poles along Portage between Main and Spence streets, starting on the north side of Portage at Main Street. For the past few years, Sumka Brothers Greenhouse has provided the colourful, overflowing baskets.

The BIZ Clean Team also puts up 22 flower baskets on Main Street and Graham Avenue and plants 1,500 flowers in planters on Graham, Vaughan and all around downtown, to make downtown look a whole lot brighter.

A two-person maintenance crew is dedicated, seven hours a day, seven days a week to keeping downtown’s flowers watered.

It was because of downtown businesses that the large Portage Avenue flower baskets went up for the first time in 2005. They embraced the initiative, sponsoring 21 flower baskets and allowing the Downtown BIZ to add more baskets than originally planned.

The flowers add a splash of colour to downtown every summer, creating a beautiful environment for both pedestrians and drivers.