While CRLN has grown dramatically over the past 40 years, one of our proudest measures of success is that our fourth generation family business has clients that have relied on CRLN for multiple generations of their own.  Both of these measures of success bloomed in the hands of Mike Ray, who took charge of the company in 1983 after his grandfather and the company's founder, Carl Ray, passed away.

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Like so many members of the Ray family, Mike grew up steeped in the landscape business, and Carl Ray Landscape Nursery in particular, learning from his grandfather before pursing formal education in ornamental horticulture at Ohio State and honing his management skills at Lawn Aid before returning to the company in the early 1980s.  Since then, he has guided the company to reliable growth, strong client relationships, and, with the Finchville farm consolidating the supply chain and a growth strategy focused on sustainability, he created a business model that has allowed it to survive recessions that peer companies could not.

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Since that time, he has been a friendly voice and mentor to landscape professionals across Kentucky, ultimately induced by his peers into the Kentucky Landscape Nurseryman's Hall of Fame in 2009.