Caladium Festival 2021
Lake Placid, Florida and the surrounding Sebring area are rich with natural beauty, excellent growing conditions, and talented people. While caladiums are the heart of our popular Caladium Festival, the event also highlights our creative community as well as our local heritage and culture. We’re excited to celebrate our 30th anniversary with you in 2021, so please make plans to join us!
Lake Placid, Florida and the surrounding Sebring area are rich with natural beauty, excellent growing conditions, and talented people. While caladiums are the heart of our popular Caladium Festival, the event also highlights our creative community as well as our local heritage and culture. We’re excited to celebrate our 30th anniversary with you in 2021, so please make plans to join us!
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July 21, <strong>2021</strong> 30th Annual <strong>Caladium</strong> <strong>Festival</strong> 7<br />
Happiness Farms, caladium pioneer<br />
By AMANDA FERNANDEZ<br />
CORRESPONDENT<br />
LAKE PLACID — Family owned and<br />
operated for over 50 years, Happiness<br />
Farms is one of the original <strong>Caladium</strong><br />
pioneer farmers. The caladium farm<br />
Serves both wholesale and retail<br />
markets, as well as homeowners. The<br />
company takes dignity in showcasing<br />
exceptional customer service. They<br />
grow 200 acres of caladium bulbs<br />
which get counted and packed by<br />
hand, ensuring the highest quality<br />
possible.<br />
Paul Phypers Sr., who had experience<br />
in potato farming, was<br />
successfully growing flowers in Lake<br />
Placid. This was due to the flourishing<br />
flower markets all along the East<br />
Coast in the 1940s. He purchased a<br />
40-acre banana farm from a woman<br />
named Mrs. Saunders on what had<br />
been part of Lake Clay. The mucky,<br />
lake-bottom land was great to grow<br />
Chrysanthemums, Easter Lilies and<br />
Gerbera Daises.<br />
Meanwhile, Max Hoffman (a sod<br />
farmer) was experimenting with<br />
growing caladiums in Lake Placid,<br />
despite it not seeming profitable and<br />
many not knowing what a caladium<br />
was. Two other families in the area, the<br />
Hendry and Bates family, also started<br />
growing caladiums in the 1950s. As<br />
time went on and caladiums gained<br />
popularity, the cut flower market<br />
that Paul Phypers Sr. found success<br />
in, started to become flooded with<br />
suppliers. It was in 1964 that Phypers<br />
submersed himself into the caladium<br />
industry and purchased half of the sod<br />
farm that Max Hoffman owned.<br />
Soon, Happiness Farms became<br />
the largest caladium grower in Lake<br />
Placid. Paul Phypers, Sr. left his legacy<br />
to his sons, Danny and Paul Phypers<br />
Jr., along with their wives, their children<br />
and their grandchildren.<br />
Over the years, Happiness Farms<br />
has integrated itself into the community<br />
that was deemed “<strong>Caladium</strong><br />
Capital of The World.” A woman by the<br />
name of Doris Gentry came up with<br />
FARM | 35<br />
AMANDA FERNANDEZ/CORRESPONDENT<br />
Darlene Phypers and Danielle Daum, along with office administration<br />
Briana Haake and Lori Roulette with the Happiness Farms sign.<br />
Happiness Farms caladium field. They grow 200 acres of caladium bulbs which get counted and packed by hand.<br />
COURTESY PHOTO<br />
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