Citrus Country Dealers: Hardee County FL

Hardee County is interior Florida at its most working: Wauchula, the county seat, in the heart of citrus groves and cattle country, sitting on the edge of Bone Valley, which holds the largest phosphate deposits in North America. Named for Florida’s 23rd governor, Cary Augustus Hardee, a Live Oak banker who governed from 1921 to 1924, this is a county of ranch porches, river camps, and downtowns that run on Southern hospitality.

Wauchula anchors the county: a historic downtown of beautifully preserved early-20th-century architecture, Classical Revival, Mission, and Art Deco buildings lining the streets, the Hardee County Historical Museum housed in the restored 1926 courthouse with its courtroom preserved to its original state, and the Wauchula Municipal Golf Course drawing the region’s players. The town’s diners and family restaurants keep the community’s gathering life close, and the citrus groves surrounding the town keep the agricultural rhythm.

Ona, a speck of a town east of Wauchula, holds the county’s strangest landmark: Solomon’s Castle, the 12,000-square-foot gleaming fortress built by artist Howard Solomon from discarded aluminum printing plates salvaged from the Wauchula Herald-Advocate, with more than 80 interpretive stained-glass windows, sculptures fashioned from thrown-away materials, and the Boat-in-the-Moat Restaurant, a 60-foot replica of a 16th-century Portuguese galleon serving lunch on an oak-shaded deck. It draws visitors from across the region, and every one of them drives past the dealer corridor.

The Peace River is the county’s water: canoeing, kayaking, and tubing water famous for bass, catfish, and crappie, with the river camps and gathering spots along its banks. Zolfo Springs and Pioneer Park add the community gathering footprint, Bowling Green holds the southern corridor, and Triple Canopy Ranch offers guided trail rides, camping, and ATV trails through the countryside. The buyer profile is ranch-and-river Florida: big porches, outdoor kitchens, and gathering spots that run hot most of the year.

The contractor landscape is ag-country shaped: ranch builders, remodelers, and the trades serving the phosphate and citrus economy, none of them currently carrying American-made retractable shade with a 15-year factory warranty. Heat, humidity, and the river corridor’s insect load make motorized screens a demonstration sale, and retractable awnings let ranch buyers command the afternoon sun without giving up the groves and pastures.

Installation stays with the dealer in Hardee County: your crew or trusted local contractors, measured with our guidance and backed by our training and technical support. Our factory’s in-house installation crews work only in Southern California, San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties. In Hardee County, the install relationship, and everything it earns, belongs to the dealer.