Do you label your plants?

wow I'm first to vote...... I use the metal tags I bought from a co-op on here for outside plants... but for inside I use small plastic tags from Novosel .... I print the labels on my brother ptouch.... they are laminated and for outdoor use

sorry I didn't put this with my first post

Very nice (and organized) looking plants, onewish!

I use my P-touch for outside labels along with Eon metal plant labels.

Inside I use cut-up plastic cups with Sharpies. Not as elegant looking as onewish's!

I use metal tags I buy from Lee Valley to label my outdoor plants. Indoors the only things that get a label are my seedlings in the spring and I just use whatever is handy - cut up plastic cups like tabasco, toothpicks with masking tape "flags", or even just masking tape "labels" on the containers.

I make my own out of aluminum foil:

http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/703648/

The nice thing about these is they won't fade and can withstand being buried for over a year! I tried everything from mini blinds and permanent markers, popsicle sticks and ball point pen sprayed with clean paint only to have them fade away.

The foil markers work great!

X

I bought EON markers on a Coop here last fall. So far, so good.
We buy tags from John Henry Company for our greenhouse plants.

I'm 70 something. When I last made tags I mislabeled stuff and otherwise mixed them up in the gardens. I caught the dickens from wife, family and friends. All types of mankind stompped around through my gardens moving misplaced markers while tramping down three others. Or someone would declair me nuts for spending big bucks for a new flower. I ran around with my tail between my legs like a scolded puppy. The solution light went on finally! No more tags. Now they talk to me about the pretty red flower and all is well in po dunk city.

I bought a small set of mini-blinds from Walmart last year for about $3.50, and I make my own labels from them. I've been cutting them to various sizes - from 2" - 6". I use whatever permanent markers I've got laying around, and they have done well so far.

I don't label anything because I don't have enough different stuff growing to have trouble keeping track of it all. Wanted to suggest for writing: Livestock eartag markers. The ink lasts for several years before fading.

I use my Brother labeler & black plastic labels from Ideal Garden Markers - part of Hostas Direct. I really like that the
marker is black & unobtrusive in the garden - the labels are black with white lettering & are easy to read. A bit pricey, but hopefully an investment I won't have to replace. They also have long stakes that have a bend in them to keep them from spinning in the dirt. Paint "markers" & inexpensive white plastic labels do not hold up in our extreme summer weather & sun.

I'm one of the "don'ts".... sometimes I'll keep a label when I buy something new, so I'll remember it for later, but that's it.

I use eon markers and P-touch labels that I print from my computer outside. I really only label my veggies and daylilies. Inside for seedlings I use whatever seems to work. WHen I use foam cups I write on the cups themselfs..I have used popsicle sticks and old blinds.

I put that I make them myself but I guss most of what I use for the permanent ones are purchased :( I also use rocks and oil pen markers. THe eon markers are for me with technical info and the rocks are for pretty.

I found a picture though these aren't ones I did. They are what got me started and were given to me by Pirl :)

I use the eon markers from the co-ops. I spray paint them then use a marker to write the names. If I don't spray them first the marker fades in time.

I started using Luster leaf rapiclip ornamental copper T labels just this spring. So far I am pleased with them. I used to be able to remember a little better and now there are more perineals I don't want to mistake for something else.....like a weed or a plant that comes up from birdseed.

I'll mark popsicle sticks for the seeds I start.

No labels in the garden, it makes it more fun when trying to determine what's survived the winter!

I always remember the names of my friends...

I don't use labels unless I'm trying to keep track of a plant. I always label seeds when they're planted. I think labels are ugly.

xeram---thanks for posting the link!

I use thick plastic tags from your local box store---they have the wide top part where you can write the name which I do in pencil so I can recycle these tags later or I use my label maker to print up the plant name and stick that on the tag. No fading!

So far I've got a zillion things I need to tag yet but haven't.

This message was edited May 26, 2008 9:16 AM

I do label my plants when I put them in the ground, but I've not found anything that won't fade away, even within one year. I"ve used venetian blinds and indelible ink, but nothing seems to work. I'm gonna be reading this thread to find a FOOLPROOF method.

I forgot... I also wrote with pencil on the venetian blinds, but that doesn't stay, either.

This message was edited May 26, 2008 11:19 AM

I have tried two forms of labelling. One was the little plastic stakes that can be labelled with a pencil (won't wash off, unlike ink which does), as shown in the attached photo. Those were for some apricot pits that I needed to know *where* I had planted them. After my "Pit Cemetery" failed to produce any young apricot trees (as detailed in my blog/journals), the little plastic stakes got reallocated for use as stakes for my pretty flowers to help them keep standing in the ferocious winds we have around here.

The other was for a planter in which my then brand new Opuntia basilaris was recovering from having been in a home where he was feared instead of loved (childhood incident in which the owner stepped on one but had enough affection for them to want to try to save what is now my Basil and sort of kept the plant going until he found a good home for Basil with me). For Basil, I created a photo identification label 8.5x11" printed on my standard computer printer after incorporating detailed print information about Basil next to a photo that showed what Basil was most likely to look like after he recovered from lack of sunlight. The tape that I used to attach my large label to the planter washed off as a result of sun and water effects, but the label did last for quite awhile.

I used the same technique of expanding a photo with print to post a memoriam on the telephone pole above the remains of a beautiful Bird of Paradise that brutish thugs riding Off Road Vehicles had apparently intentionally (the flower was immediately next to the telephone pole) destroyed by riding over it with their ORVs. In that memoriam I showed a photo of what the flowers *had* looked like before being murdered, expressed my sadness about the murder of that beautiful flowering plant, and kept the sign posted above the remains for several days. Then I cleaned up the remains and properly disposed of them and the memorial plaque.

So it isn't a universal thing that I create labels next to my plants. The DG Journals do a good job for me of keeping track of what everybody's name is and other details that I want to keep a record of. But from time to time I do such things outside the house as well as in my online Journals.

I typically start off using the plant tag that came with the plant as a temporary fix, then I make labels on my P-touch and stick them on the metal Eon tags for a more permanent solution. In the past I haven't labeled all my plants, usually just the ones that have a cultivar name I might not remember, or if it's one of the genera that I collect I'll never remember what species each plant is if I don't label it. But one of my summer projects is getting more labels in, that way if I start to forget what I planted I'll be covered!

I make my tags (50-65) out of shims (for doors) costing about $2 for a hundred. I etch the item with the planting/sowing date in large letters/numerals. Since the shims are already sharp and the ground soft....no problem in making them stand at a slight angle in order to read while standing. I am able to use the markers from year to year until they decompose too far to reuse.

This winter I bought the Eon tags from a co-op and have used my P-touch labeler on them. This is the first time I've done more than a couple white plastic knives with a grease pencil or tried to keep up with the store tag. I've really enjoyed using the Eon markers. Esp. on the tons of lilies I bought. I hesitated to get them because I didn't know if I would enjoy it or if it would just become another chore. I'm glad I got them though. It helps when I enevitably kill something I LOVE and don't remember exactly what it was. I just hope those P-touch labels hold up through the weather!

Nope, no more! The Podster undermined my labeling technique so now I only label seedling pots. When sprouts arrive I can take photos and store the info via DG journal. In this manner notes can also be made as to where it is planted too.
Far easier than staying mad at this guy. 8 )

I bought some labels from the classified ads here on DG. I just label different areas, so my helpers (kids, husband) and I agree about what part of the yard or garden is which. I label individual plants until I know them well enough to remember them, or until DH forgets, which happened with all the dayliles. Carrie

I voted that I make my own. Like everyone else, I've tried a bunch of different things. But now I just go to the big box store and get a few handfuls of paint stir sticks and write on them with a Sharpie Pen. They don't cost anything and they last the whole season.

I purchase small clay pots, fill with quickcrete with a wire in the middle, after it dries I make a label with a label maker and place by plants.

In the garden (outside) I seldom label anything. With the Hoya, however, I use the vinyl tags that slip through to form a loop on every single one.

Barb

Labels from a co-op they are awesome and I will need more lol!!

I like the labels from Yucca Do nursery.(they call them Do-Hickeys) They are they only thing I have found that stands up to our hot texas sun. Still legible three summers later...

I said "purchase", and start each season w/ about 100 galvanized perennial markers and 500 plastic ones. By this point in the planting season, I've run out of nice, orderly markers AND run out of money, so I am cutting up plastic mini-blinds. Pirl gave me this idea!

BTW, I've tried EVERYTHING to write on markers, and PLAIN PENCIL is the best!!! Even on the galvanized markers. I go over the pencil w/ a sharpie to make them easier to read, but the pencil never goes away completely, like everything else. China markers work well, but I find them much harder to write with, plus they will rub off very easily on to your hands, etc.

A friend that's big into dahlias, said regular pencil works the best, too. Might have to try it.

I use a variety of home made ones, some old foil ones you write on with a pen, some sheet metal ones I engrave and some temporary ones of mini blinds with pencil on. I'm not OCD about it since I map out what plants are where.

I will usually put the tag from the nursery pot somewhere in the vicinity of the plant when it goes in the ground. By the next year, the tag is usually gone, but I start out with a tag. Some of the seeds I've started I have used blank plastic stakes, that I write on with a sharpie.

I use zinc tags I bought in a co-op a couple years back, tags that came with the plants, cut up mini blinds and scotch tape wrapped around a toothpick like a tiny flag, for seedlings.

The birds, dogs, cats and whatnot, proceed to pull the tags out of the ground and throw them around or the sun fades the writing on the zinc tags, so I wonder why both, I know most names by now anyway, except for the cultivar DL's.

I make my sticks using popsicle sticks, and writing on then with a waterproof marker.

I haven't planted outside, but I don't think I will use labels. On my indoor plants, I have used popsicle sticks in some of my 4" pots, but I also used some junk mail I got to make a key of what I planted in my egg cartons instead of using labels. Once they got big enough to transplant, I used more junk mail (man I get a lot of junk mail...this stuff was cardboard-like stuff) to label my plants. I thought it would be sturdier than it was, but it still seems to be doing the job.

For outdoor stuff, I use zinc markers and write on them in pencil. The graphite galvanically corrodes the zinc a little bit so that the writing does not disappear. For stuff in the house or under the porch roof, I use the little plastic markers that are rough enough on one side to write on them in pencil. This lasts for years. Marker fades in one summer.

For me it goes like this ... take the tag ...go to my garden journal on the top shelf ...write out everything on the tag into said journal ...after studying anything unfamiliar (in my garden bible) and perhaps the net, I go plant the new arrival.Back to the journal and write where I planted it ...the date and leave space for updates and comments.The label itself goes into my labels box ...one day I will file them I suppose but for now it's ok ...that box goes up there next to my clippings of "saved recipes" that I never get around to filing either but on cold rainy days ...I take these boxes down to play with. The only trouble is that I have been doing this for so many years ...many plant names have been changed and some of recipe clippings are so old they are still in pounds and ounces instead of metrics *blushing*

I keep the ID tags that come with my orchids but I don't label other house plants or garden plants. However I do keep logs on all my plants whether they are labeled or not. When I first started keeping logs I included a brief description of the pots for my non-labeled houseplants and I made a diagram of the garden plants (to help ID the plants) along with info from the tag. Recently I've taken pictures of all plants and I'm adding a photo of each plant to it's log. I like to note changes in the plants, when they are repotted, when I give away cuttings, etc in the plant logs.

This message was edited May 26, 2008 9:38 PM