Long Term Labels

Useful blog, Siris ..
I don't know of a good, easy, economic answer to the labels challenge. In my garden, blackbirds and other large birds throw my pebbles around, so if I had plant names on stones and pebbles, the birds would take great delight in moving my pebbles to different plants, thereby re-naming everything !

Added this blog to GoYpedia Plant Labels

It does seem to be a perennial issue for keen plants people!

Hi Siris, I agree those labels look awful in the garden - so I just don't use them. Rather, I save my plant labels in my desk drawer in the house. They'll never fade and you won't forget which plants they belong to...and you won't have an ugly garden with a lot of blank labels popping up. Keep them inside. If you absolutely must have labels, wooden popsicle sticks & a sharpie seem to work best.

Over the years I have purchased some of the black ones from NT shops, they come with a white wax crayon which stays on the label for a long time, I still have wax crayons from when my grandchildren were little so that solved my problem when original white one wore away however they are kept for use in the g'houses.. In the garden I got fedup of losing my labels also don't like to see them, so if planting something new into the garden I take a photograph showing where new plants are and make a note of the name and position on my laptop, I also make labels out of the milk cotainers,when I need extra at potting on stage, will admit I have been known to pinch one of hubby's pens that he uses to write on discs, that certainly stays put on my labels...Last year my sister gave me a gift of some very strong wooden ones which I use for my toms and cucumbers, don't know where she got them from but they are marvellous, for anyone with access to some handy tools they would be quite easy to make oneself and probably a lot cheaper done that way...

This has been debated many times on GoY, I just wish I had a really good answer for you Siris, sadly not!

I still haven't found a decent way either Siris. OH bought me a labelling machine that uses a sticky peel off backing tapes. unfortunately they don't stay stuck to the labels for more than 3 yrs.
I also take pictures etc but in the greenhouse plants get moved around a lot so they need labels in their pots.
Sharpies only seem to last 2 years at the most for me.

Sue - I use the black labels in my raised bulb bed. I find it takes about 30 seconds to inscribe each one - depends on how many you need to write!

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and comments.
Seems it is a perennial problem, ha,ha.
Lincslass,When I am talking long lasting, I am meaning 3, 6 or longer years.
Bathgate, wooden ice cream sticks (Popsicle?) rot here after about a year.
Seaburngirl, I too have tried a Dymo mini hand labelling machine. Now you have me thinking. I have in the past found a name label, detached from the 'post' many years after the plant has gone, in the soil. So could the name label be stapled/tacked to the post?
Goy has prompted me to take photos of individual plant, then I can see it's position to its neighbour. However, as I have a large collection of bearded Iris, long term plants,(not in grids or rows) which all look the same when not in flower, it can be difficult to ascertain the different clumps. These have the black labels.
Linkslass, I did find a black label in the garden from 1992 within a Kirengoshoma, with writing intact, which I then snapped in moving the plant.
Andrew, yes black labels seem the best solution for long term plants, at the moment I am on my second packet of 100. I would not use these on my Iris seedling crosses, as maybe the cross after flowering is not worth keeping, and the label would be wasted.
Ps, I scrub names with Vim from white labels used on annuals/transient plants, to reuse. Writing usually lasts a year.

I have tried most things, unfortunately I am a mover and a shaker lol.......so hardly anything stays in the same place, so no good taking photographs, when your plant collections runs into thousands, you might as well give up, everything we have ever purchased for the garden is catalogued on GOY, but as we tend to lose plants, so this needs to be updated regularly, which can take ages!!
Black rigid are the best I have seen, overwritten in silver, how long they last I have no idea, but, they are easily hidden from view........Sue perhaps you need to invent something new!!

Siris - Do you have old venetian blinds in your house, aluminum blinds? Some are plastic. I've seen somebody use the slats for garden markers. The aluminum or plastic ones won't degrade. You can label them with a sharpie, then place a clear piece of packing tape over the writing to preserve it.

Dd, overwritten in silver? Is that with a special pen?

Bathgate, thanks for that the idea of blind slats. I have located 2 old aluminium ones, and have done a test, actually more easily scribed upon than the black painted ones. Unfortunately they are blue.

Yes Sue,.....have just priced up 1000 for rigid black 5 inch over £ 20.00 might have to bite the bullet! annoying that the Gcs don't sell these, because I had lots of tokens to spend!!

That's not a bad price. I think I paid £6 for 100. Btw, the green label with the inking on the Geranium Blueberry Ice, is holding up well.

Well that's good to hear......

Which is why I pinch one of hubby's everytime he buys some new ones, he hasn't realised yet, lol.......

Let's hope he doesn't look at GOY then - lol