toronto pothole flowers

Someone planted flowers in a Toronto pothole

Well isn't this just a lovely way to mask unsightly potholes that haven't been fixed?

Visitors to the Toronto Islands this weekend were amused to find some pretty pink tulips growing from the middle of a public road, all decked out in pine cones to celebrate Mother's Day. 

Unlike Tupac's "The Rose That Grew from Concrete," these flowers didn't battle adversity to spring up between cracks in the pavement and show the world their glory (as cool as that would be).

They were planted, as evidenced by fresh dirt surrounding the healthy and full-grown tulips.

Nobody has yet come forward, however, to take credit for the act or to explain why they planted flowers in a pothole on the Toronto Islands.

Was it a surprise gesture for someone on Mother's Day? An ad-hoc attempt at road beautification? A prank?

In Belgium, people have recently taken to planting flowers in potholes as a political statement, of sorts, to highlight a lack of action from city officials in terms of repairing roads.

Toronto has its fair share of potholes, to be sure. Ask anyone who drives or bikes along pretty much any road downtown.

The city has been working particularly hard to remedy the problem this year. A total of 151,092 potholes have been filled in since the beginning of 2018, according to councillor Norm Kelly — 19,094 of them over the past two weeks alone.

Lead photo by

David Wong


Latest Videos



Latest Videos


Join the conversation Load comments

Latest in City

Doug Ford just got even tougher on Ontario bike lanes with new measures

Toronto's $27 billion Ontario Line just crossed its biggest construction milestone so far

Rare Canadian gold coin sells for over $1.5 million

Toronto ranked among the top 100 best cities in the world for 2025

A full list of all the items included in Canada's holiday GST cut

Liquid soap sold at stores across Canada recalled due to contamination

Canadians to get GST cut on groceries and new $250 rebate ahead of holidays

Snow is finally coming to southern Ontario and here's when it will hit