Carl Ray Landscape Nursery, preceded by the Louisville Landscape Company and Thomas Ray Company, was founded in 1928 in Louisville, Kentucky and would operate out of an office in Lyndon for more than 50 yeas before relocating to Eastwood where it remains today.  From the beginning, our company specialized in tree transplanting, using giant metal A-frames mounted on trucks with chains and winches as the forerunner to today's Big John Tree Spade.

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In 1987 CRLN opened our first off-site farm in Finchville where we focused on growing key nursery stock locally to ensure quality and availability for clients.  In the 1990's the Finchville operation was transitioned to a larger farm nearby and has operated, uninterrupted, since.

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The Ray family have been involved in landscaping in Louisville for more than 100 years across several branches of the family to include Thomas Ray, Carl's father and a landscape nurseryman himself;  Bob Ray, Carl's son and an arboriculturist who would found the Bob Ray Company; Tee Ray, who owns and operates the Bob Ray Company today; William Ray, Carl's son and an award winning landscape architect; and Mike Ray, William's son and Carl's grandson, who owns and operates the Carl Ray Landscape Nursery, Inc company today.  Collectively the Ray family has had a massive impact on private homes, high profile businesses, farms across Kentucky,  Kentucky State Parks, the landscape of several college campuses (including the education of students on them) and trade associations including the Louisville Nursery Association and the Kentucky Landscape Nursery Association.