4 years ago I started potting up my Iris collection for a move. I labeled them all- I thought. We didn't move for 4 years and the labels faded. Same thing happened to my Daylillies. The only labels that lasted were from my mom's garden, metal ones that my mom etched with a tool she bought. What I have been doing is taking pictures of the blooms as they come out. A good shot of an individual bloom. I use my digital camera and then load them into my computer. I also print them out about 9 to a page. It is really helping me to identify them. I am also labeling them- this time on copper plant labels that take an impression when I write hard on them with a ball point pen. There are places you can post the pictures- at this site I think- and ask others to identify them. You can also browse Iris Pics and see if you can find them. As the proud owner of about 40 Iris colors and 35 Daylily colors, I empathize.

graceva,

I used the copper tags on my iris a few years ago and they corroded very quickly. Within one season, I could no longer read the tag.

Kathy

If you use LABEL in the search box you will find some excellent posts. Iris are always traveling away from their labels!!

One of the easiest and cheapest ways to label iris is to cut up plastic mini blinds, and write with indeleble marker on the miniblind and stick it next to the iris. Not foolproof but very economical. Plant markers are sold, and you can get etching tools for metal ones, but it gets expnsive after a while.
Best time to mark? Right at bloom time! You will never remember afterwards what is what.
Another essential if you are really serious: a spreadsheet-plot plan that has each iris marked in position. Labels no matter how good, get lost or 'move', but a spreadsheet is your master plan and you can make new markers, or if you don't expect the bloom you got, you can check the spreadsheet to see what is around it.
Laetitia

What I use has worked for years. It is a paint pen you get in a craft store. DecoPaint fine line.
Other is #2 pencil never fades, because it is light but you will always be able to read it. Grease/China pencil.

I use the paint pen for the fields but the grease when I ship.

D

Labels.....argh!!!!! The bane of my existence.

Have tried multiple systems:

1) metal tags--Too expensive!

2) growers tags (Cooley's big markers are fab! Suttons' markers or is it Mid-America's ? -stay put) but the lily growers don't send markers

3) Cut up white plastic containers, cut to a point to fit in the soil. Indelible markers to write on

3) Pencil on purchased white plsitc markers--these were broken in the garden way too easily

4) plastic knives. China marker to write on.Still testing, but it smears VERY easily an dI don't htink this will last

5) purchased marker of a different shape than above. Written in pencil. I just bought 500 of these, so well see if this mehtod works.

6) Garden map. This is a complicated system! I've got a general map of the garden in bold black pen. THen, I overlay tracing papers on it. One sheet if for iris. Another sheet is for lilies, a third sheet is for daylilies.
This is kind of ok but I still need plant tags.

I'm convined that penil on plastic of some kind is the longest lasting (except for those fabulous Cooley tags!)