Labeling?

Well, I bought myself a new P-Touch labler for my gardens. I 'm getting tired of crawling thu my beds once a year and re-marking faded name stakes. llilyfan showed me how to use one, llilyfan loves hers. Instead of my uneven cramped writing, I could have readable printed tags with room for name, breeder & year.

I eagerly unpacked the tapes, machine and all and sat down with my daylily database. I proceeded to make 10 label mistakes with lots of wasted tape between. Help! I put it aside & ignored it in frustration. Thank Goodness for Lily Society friends--Iowaron & llilyfan showed me AGAIN how to do it. Last night, I sat down with the directions & DID IT RIGHT!

here is a picture of me with my first 125 labels!!!!

I cut the labels and sorted them into their correct labeled garden section. This means I can take out stakes for one garden section at a time. A little crazy, but have you ever faced your gardens with almost 400 garden stakes in your hands?

Wow lucky you!! Looks like it will save lots of time and aggravation once you have the hang of it!

Next step is to put the labels on the garden stakes and spray with an acrylic sealer for longer life. I'm starting with a set of new stakes to replace old ones. I'll bring the replaced stakes inside to clean (fingernail polish remover does wonders!) & label them too. Only 389 daylily stakes to go....

Hi Wanda,

Oh, you are doing super!

Just don't do what I did one year. I thought I would pull up the original
stakes, rush to the house and think to myself from right to left four different
cultivars. With the new labels in hand, I went back only to realize I didn't know
the order they were now in. I had to wait until they bloomed to put the proper
labels on, LOL.

Have much fun!

And my labels will finally be legible. (Moby,Iowaron,llilyfan&Linda_IA, this is NOT an aid for midnight poaching!)

This message was edited Mar 25, 2006 11:37 AM

Looking good Wanda, I need to invest in one of those.

Just started on my own too Wanda - now how many mistakes can one person make? Tried to make them only 3" long and it just didn't work. How do you put the really long ones on? For example "Amanda's Little Red Shoes". Any ideas? I can shrink the type now so I'll perhaps just do that. I want one line for 'info'. Thanks for the recommendation of the acrylic Sealer. I hadn't realized but it makes a lot of sense.

I've been resisting it for quite awhile now. Finally gave in!

why is there so much wasted tape i have inch on both side just wasted . GRRR

You can turn off the feed on most Brothers. On mine you hold down the red CODE button and press the z key at the same time. Then you don't have that wasted space between each label. When you've printed an entire strip and are done, then hold down the CODE button and press the SPACE button to cut it.

I also use smaller print to save the tapes because they're expensive. Once in a while you can catch a good sale on the tapes on Ebay. I sometimes find someone selling a "lot" of 6 or so for about $6 or $7 a tape.

I double label my daylilies and other plants. I use a zinc marker above ground. And in the ground with the roots, I have vinyl wraparound tags (like you see on shrubs and trees in nurseries) with printed labels on them. If my zinc marker comes up missing, I can dig the plant and find the vinyl tag and I won't lose names this way.

Wow! that's quite a piece of work there. Did I say 'piece of work'? I meant 'alot of work.' LOL!

Tazzy, If you print out a string of labels and use spaces between the names of the plants then you don't use all of that wasted tape. That was already bugging me too.

Doss, you said you want one line for info. Are you wanting one line for info and one line for the name? Mine has a return on it to make a label with 2 lines. Does yours have this feature too?

Wanda, I took my tags one step further and spray painted them green before putting the labels on them. The first ones I did white, but in the winter my beds look like little grave yards. Last fall I decided to try green and that looked much better this winter. I suppose if we had snow all winter the white would have looked better though.

What is a p-touch & where do you get them? Spraying them green is a great idea to avoid graveyard look.

A P-Touch is a label maker. I bought mine at Staples.....can't remember how much I paid...less than $60 though. I use clear tape with black ink in mine, but you can buy different colors of tape with different colors of ink.

Love that pic of you at the beginning Wanda!

I label because I have no memory. I got mine at Staples years ago and that's where I buy the tape, too. It's a Brother Labeler when you ask for one. I get my "rose markers" at EON Industries. I have never used extra sealer on them. Does it keep the metal lasting longer? My labels never come off-even when I try to replace them, I hafta put the label on top of the old one cause they've adhered so well. Eventually the metal gets old. My yard is filled with labels with the grave yard look in winter. Which I don't mind at all. It's obvious to all that I've completely lost my mind-which I have. Labeling is a big job here cause I keep buying more. It takes money and an anal, organized mind with some time on your hands (I label while I watch movies).
The labels show for a while in the spring.

I always think that mine look like a mini-drive in theater! I wonder if it's worth using the industrial strength adhesive tape that is made for the p-touch. Anyone ever used it? Here's an iris 'installation' last summer. These don't have printed labels though.

I don't think I've ever seen the industrial strength tape.....mine is the weather proof kind. I don't put a clear coat on them, but they have lasted just fine now....some have been out there for 2 years.

Are the weatherproof kind special? I haven't seen them.

Hmmmmm......I went to their site and I no longer see the weather-proof kind listed, but the industrial strength sounds like what I have been using. Maybe they changed the name of it?

Thanks Mendy, I'll order some of that. I'm out of what I have.

:-)

I found a p-touch at Target. What is difference with that & Dymo?

mgh;
your label maker is identical too mine
Thanks Doss i use the ( extra strength adhiesve )
It is very expenseive now that we are retired , thanks for tip on how to not waste it

I asked Santa to bring me a labelmaker for Christmas and have enjoyed using it already! I love the copper markers, but tho' I pressed hard when I wrote on them last fall at planting time, I can barely read the impressions now. I am printing out the labels and attaching over the copper. These are great little machines...and yes you can make two lines by hitting the "enter" key which makes a return arrow in the line you're typing

patsyp, there probably isn't much difference between the Dymo and the Ptouch....just different companies. To tell you the truth, the only Dymo I have ever used is the old style where you turned a dial to the letter you wanted and then squeezed the handle. That was ages ago! LOL

The TZ tapes are weatherproof. I talked with many daylily growers before buying mine, and I was informed that colored labels will fade. The clear labels do not. I've had mine in the garden for 3 or so years, and they still look good as new.

You'll want to look for the TZ 121, 131, 141, 151 tapes. They're the weatherproof ones, black ink on clear tape. They'll last forever outside.

You can buy a Brother Ptouch labelmaker and the tapes on Ebay. I have a Ptouch 2200, and I think I paid about $35 for it. It will print up to 5 lines and use tapes from 1/4" to 1" wide. Earlier models will print less lines and may not accept a 1" tape.

The tapes are where you spend most of your money. They are about 20 ft long. And you can find them on Ebay for anywhere from $6 each to nearly $20. I think at Office Max, they're $20 each. I try to catch sales on Ebay.

ButterflyChaser, stop that!!! LOL Now I want a new one that will print 5 lines on one label!!! Don't tell me they are only $35!!! I know I paid more than that for mine!!! ROTFLOL

This place is a lot cheaper than Staples. Maybe not as cheap as ebay (or as expensive depending). I don't own stock in the company. :-) There are probably other places with prices as low but... This is for the 1/2" size.
http://www.ecomofficesupplies.com/category.aspx?categoryID=384

I'm covering old labels so I have to use the white tape. Let's hope that it doesn't fade too fast!

This place has clear industrial strength tape
http://www.p-touchlabels.com/TZS%20Labels.htm

This message was edited Mar 26, 2006 4:18 PM

Here's an example of how I've done the labels. I love having all that info. at hand in the garden, especially when I can't remember which are dips and which are tets! It helps laying out the beds too, because I do the labels first and then place them where the plants will go. I can easily compare heights, bloom times, etc.

I have one of the simpler models of the P-touch, which doesn't hook up to the computer or anything, but I love it. You can get the machines and supplies at Costco.

Doss, how are you doing with yours?

Leslie

I'm doing great with mine I think. I'm just beginning but I've added whether or not the cultivar is only pod (POD) or pollen (POL) fertile when I have the information and left out the blooming time. I think that it will make dabbing a lot easier. Perhaps I should make it smaller and put in the blooming time? What do you think?

Just out of curiousity what is the longest anyone has seen these labels last so far????

I've had the same labels on some for 10 years-but it's the metal that goes first.

I started by using clear backgrounds and then switched to white. No fading that I've seen. I like white better because I can actually read them.

In 10 years you have had no fading or labels coming un-stuck?...So if you had a plant tag that would last forever then you are saying that you would have a tag that would last for a very very long time...correct?

I'm just tired of re-doing the 800 + labelsevery year --not to mention being unable to read my own writing.

Friends of mine have P touch labels 4 years old with no fading or peeling. It gives me hope.

I'm just using 2 lines : name on top/ breeder & year on bottom in nice big type for my old eyes. I have to use short stakes because the dog pulls out the tall ones as he runs thru the beds chasing rabbits.

I have not had any label problems (fading or unstuck) in around 10 years of use. I do renew the markers due to the metal bending too much (from snow loads) to fix or the metal legs rusting, but the labels are fine. The black ink doesn't fade at all that I've noticed. Has anyone else out there used them for a long time?

When we sold our house three years ago, I potted my fav plants up and left the rest for the young couple with a toddler who bought the house. The next time I saw them they told me that their toddler had pulled every label out of the garden. Luckily the couple didn't have an obsession to know what everything was and the plants didn't care either!

I was happily "planting" new labels/stakes yesterday. I've got 50 new ones to start & cleaning old ones to re-use. I'm only keeping the stakes that go THRU the metal label---Walker the Wonderdog can hit the other kind & pop the metal tag off. I cannot tell you how many hours I've spent hunting for those darn loose metal tags!

I use to use the other kind too Wanda and my labels always came off too. I also use the ones that go through the label.

Our beagle pup last year thought it was fun to just pull them UP. I caught him doing this a couple of times. Back to the pen he went.