Larry Caplan is the owner of Caplan’s Tree & Landscape Consulting LLC, a company he created in 2015. He consults with municipalities, homeowners, and commercial companies, helping them keep their properties beautiful and safe. His business really took off after he retired from the Purdue Extension Service, where he spent 32 years in Vanderburgh County as the Horticulture Educator.
Larry received a Bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and a Master’s degree from the University of Illinois — both degrees in horticulture.
Larry is a Certified Arborist with the International Society of Arboriculture, and is Tree Risk Assessment Qualified. He holds a commercial pesticide applicator’s license for the state of Indiana in categories 3A (ornamentals) and 3b(Turfgrass). He was a founding member of the Indiana Urban Forest Council, and served on the Indiana Arborist Association Board until 2015. He has been a board member of the Wesselman Nature Society in Evansville Indiana from 2003 to the 2013, and has chaired their Education Committee. Larry has also served as an appointed member of the Evansville Tree Advisory Board since 2001.
Larry has taught and administered the Purdue Master Gardener Program in southwestern Indiana since 1987.
Larry has won numerous national awards through the National Association of County Agriculture Agents for his high-quality educational programs. He won a first place national award in 1996 for his presentation on “Alternatives to Pesticides;” in 2004 for his weekly newspaper column with the Evansville Courier and Press; and again in 2012 for his PowerPoint presentation on “The History of Pesticides.” He received the Distinguished Service Award at the 2017 NACAA national meeting. In 1997 Larry received, on behalf of the Southwestern Indiana Master Gardener Association, the Purdue University “Breaking New Ground Best Practices Award” for his demonstration exhibit, “Gardening for People with Physical Disabilities.”