Traffic blossoms for sunflowers
In what had become a late-July tradition, hundreds of vehicles jammed a busy highway north of Hamilton Saturday and Sunday, as hordes of plant paparazzi jockeyed to get the perfect shot of bursting bright yellow sunflowers.
The place was Bogle Seeds, a sixth-generation grain and seed farm on Safari Road at Hwy. 6 North in Flamborough, the largest grower of sunflowers in Ontario — about 30 hectares of them — which makes it an annual attraction for artists and photographers.
Hamilton Police said visitors were even parking on the soft shoulder of the notoriously busy highway and walking across multiple lanes of hurtling traffic to get a picture.
“Some of them were crossing with children,” said Staff Sgt. Chris Hastings. “They were putting their hands up in the air (to halt vehicles), but live traffic doesn’t stop on that highway ... It was a huge issue.”
Brad Bogle told CHCH well over 7,000 people visited the farm.
“There were so many people they jammed Hwy. 6, they jammed up Safari and all the side roads and finally the police came to us and said we have to shut this down,” he told the network.
In previous years the Bogle family has asked the public not to trespass on their property to take photos. But this year, Hastings said, the family used the Bogle Seeds website to invite people to come. By Sunday, however, a new post on the Bogle Seeds website said all photography of sunflowers on the property is “closed for the season!”
“There will be no more sunflower viewing/photography allowed,” the farm said.