Last updated on June 27th, 2026 at 03:44 pm
An interesting small town, proud of its vivid crop
Florida has plenty of small-town festivals built around local products – strawberries, every type of seafood, even swamp cabbage.
But Lake Placid has a product you might not know about – caladiums – and this charming Central Florida town celebrates the colorful landscaping plant the annual Lake Placid Caladium Festival.
The 2026 festival will be the 35th annual festival and it will be July 24-26. It’s free.
The Lake Placid Caladium Festival will offer arts and crafts, a beer garden, food booths, entertainment and an antique and classic car and bike show. There is a schedule of entertainment that includes cloggers, country bands, classic rock, blue grass and local favorites.
But the caladiums are the star of the festival. You can buy them and the town will be full of them — a local grower donates thousands of caladium bulbs to decorate the city.
If you’re a gardener in South Florida, you know caladiums as those summer plants with vividly colored heart-shaped leaves in shades of red, white and pink. The big leaves come in various shapes and add color to gardens when it’s too hot to grow much much else. There are more than 40 varieties of caladiums, which are in the jack-in-the-pulpit family.
Attendees can enjoy caladium bus tours with knowledgeable growers on board, providing insights into the cultivation and care of caladiums.
The bus tours depart every half-hour from 9:30 am-2 pm. Tickets are $15 in advance at caladiumfestival.org or $18 on the day of event at the Lake Placid Women’s Club, which is adjacent to the festival.
In addition to the tours, caladium bulbs will be available for purchase.
At this year’s festival, three new University of Florida caladium varieties will debut: Lady Bug, a fancy-leaf red; Pretty’N’Pink, a fancy-leaf pink; and Pink A Boo, a strap-leaf variety. Growers will have these and others available to admire and purchase.
Here’s more information about the Lake Placid Caladium Festival.
Going to Lake Placid? Read: Lake Placid charms with clowns & caladiums, good eatin’ & great yarns from Florida Rambler to learn more.
Why caladiums?
Lake Placid calls itself the Caladium Capital of the World because it grows 90 percent of the world’s supply of caladiums.
South Florida’s climate is similar to the hot, humid, tropical rainforests of South America where caladiums naturally originate, with long summers, ample rainfall, and frost-free winters. Caladiums die back in the winter and re-emerge in spring.
At one time, there were 14 farming families with 1,200 acres of the plants, growing caladiums in Lake Placid since the 1940s. Today, there are fewer than a half-dozen farms for a total of 450 acres, but the tradition continues.
Folks in Lake Placid compare these fields of bright colors to Holland’s tulip fields in spring.
Lake Placid has fewer than 2,000 residents. It’s located on US 27 an hour east of Sarasota and two hours south of Orlando in a scenic region with hills, lakes and rural vistas.
Plan your visit to Lake Placid Caladium Festival
Admission and parking is free.
Festival hours are 9 a.m.- 4 p.m. on Friday and Saturday.
For more information go to the website www.caladiumfestival.org
If you visit Lake Placid for the Caladium Festival, be sure to tour the community’s 40 murals, another point of great local pride.
Other things to do in the Lake Placid area:
- Visiting charming Lake Placid.
- Scenic drive along the Cracker Trail
- Sugar Sand Distillery is a 10-acre sugar-cane farm in Lake Placid that opened a distillery last year making their own rum, vodka, whiskey and moonshine. Tours with tastings are $7.50 per person and available on Saturdays.
- Also Secret Gardens Winery and Farm in Sebring, Tropical Winery in Lake Placid.
- Highland Hammocks State Park is a beauty. The park and rural roads around it are popular with bicyclists.
- Paynes Creek Historic State Park
Places to stay
There’s a moderately priced historic hotel in Avon Park, the Jacaranda Hotel, which has a fascinating history and comfortable lodging. Room rates were $85-$110 per night. Enjoy the Sunday Brunch in the hotel’s dining room, and the swimming pool is a welcome amenity in summer.
Experience the HGTV makeover of historic downtown Sebring by staying at The Roanoke Hotel on The Circle. In the Summer of 2025, room rates in this boutique hotel’s 10 rooms varied from $140 for a modest queen room to $195 for a spacious king with a private veranda overlooking Circle Park.
Another historic hotel in Sebring, the Inn on the Lakes, was offering rooms for $140 and up per night in 2025. Views of the lake are a bit higher.
Here’s another popular option in Lake Placid: Lake Grassy Inn and Suites
Editors note: The campground at Highland Hammocks was closed for renovations in 2025 but is expected to reopen sometime in 2026.
Places to eat
These restaurants are definitely on our list:
- Cowpoke’s Watering Hole, Sebring. You don’t go to Sebring without eating at least one meal at this popular steakhouse on U.S. 27 between Lake Placid and Sebring.
- Sebring Soda and Ice Cream Works, Downtown Sebring. Famous little soda shop.
- Morty and Edna’s Craft Kitchen, Main Street, Lake Placid. Breakfast and lunch only.
There are also two craft breweries, Wet Dogs Brewing in Lake Placid and Turn 2 Brewery in Sebring.
Are you still having the festival this weekend
Alice, The Caladium Festival is still on, according to their website and their Facebook page.