For more permanent labels, the metal ones on wires you poke in the ground last a few years, though the wires tend to rust. I have printed on plastic outdoor labels with a lazerwriter to put on the metal plate. Some people like to cut up pieces of venetian blinds. I use the little 3-4" plastic labels a lot for vegetables, and reuse them. Pencil is the best marker, it doesn't fade and can be scrubbed off with cleanser to reuse it. The plastic labels will actually last a long time if buried under the plant so they don't degrade from the sun.

I mostly rely on maps to keep track of plants. I make them in Excel and print them out. The pop can idea sounds interesting. I've seen metal labels that are supposed to be written on to leave an impression in the metal, I suppose they could be used like that.

Pencil on little wooden markers for veggies.

Pen on aluminum for woody stuff, I buy the box of 50 tags but your pop cans are the same thing just home made.

I've used paint pens on smooth rocks for roses but even covered with craft epoxy the paint fades after a year or so.

Hemnancy, yes pop cans are soft so you can write on them with an old ballpoint and it will leave an impression. I use metal numbered punches and tap the number on to the pieces of pop can. I like your idea of buried plastic labels, less work. I make maps too, the trouble with that for me is, unfortunately, I still plant things in the wrong place, have to move them and don't get around to changing the maps. I still have some old plastic vertical blinds I could use for labels. Neat idea, and neat garden?
I still think "danceswithweeds" is a better name for me or at the moment "junkyarddog", I'm in the process of rounding up all the old pots and stuff that are beyond repair or reuse. Wish me luck I need it.

Waiting for Spring,

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Midnight, I love your idea. Good thinking. I use pencil on wood for annuals and annual veggies, and like Reg I like to use a pen or something sharp to push indented letters as a label on a thin strip of metal, though I use pre-made copper plant label/strips because as they age they turn Statue of Liberty green and blend in fairly well.

I wish I was as organized as Nancy and kept a map of everything. I may have to give that a try!

Take care,
Grant

Grant, love your idea of copper plant labels, when they get their patina, they must look lovely. Where do you get your copper strips, I've never seen them up our way.

A......

I have an idea that might work for copper.

Some hardware stores sell very thin sheets.

You could sacrifice an old paper cutter, or use metal cutting scissors to cut your own labels.

Then drill holes for your tie.

Use an engraver to etch the name in the copper.

I used to use pre-made aluminum ones on which the name was indented with a pen, etc..

I think I heard something about the possibility of lead in venetian blinds, so I don't make any but get plants from other people with those kinds of labels.

I know what you mean about the old pots, AM. I also stay up after midnight a lot but one of my knicknames is dancestilmidnight. Danceswithweeds would be appropriate for me too. I'm still working on the aftermath of being gone for the month of June three years ago when my son and daughter each had a son born, 6 days apart. The weeds all went to seed and there has been h!!! to pay ever since. And all my Corydalis bit the dust. But I discovered an interesting use for empty 3 gallon pots last year. We have paper wasps around and I hate to kill them because they are such good predators, but they kept getting in our mailbox and newspaper boxes. I discovered they would build a nest in an inverted pot we put under the mailbox and so everyone was happy, even our waspy friends.

Hemnancy, I feel good, just came back from unloading a truckful of broken plastic pots, flats, old remay and other junk at the landfill, cost $4.00, not bad. I still have pots kicking around with stuff in them, have no idea what, the plant tags have disappeared.
Were you saying there might be lead in the plastic blinds, metal or both types. I certainly don't want to put any kind of lead into the soil.
I too am desperately trying to get my garden back into some kind of order, been kind of laid up for a few years, feeling lots better now thank goodness. My garden sort of got overgrown and I am now working like h... to reclaim it. I know what you mean about family, our 3 all got married within a 10 month period.

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I use plastic tee stakes, and write on them with pencil. They last many years, and the pencil doesn't fade.

Here is a link that might be useful: plastic tee stakes

AM- I googled it and apparently it is plastic blinds from developing countries. Article below. It doesn't mention metal ones, which is what people I know use.

For labeling plants for plant sales, I use plastic surveyor's tape (about 1" wide, no adhesive, tears by hand, from a nursery or feed store). I've buried the tape with the roots of the daylilies and when dug up later the Sharpie marker ink is often still legible.

Here is a link that might be useful: blinds with lead

Thanks for the heads up on that one hemnancy, I'm certainly going to pass that information along to my gardening friends. We've all got to be more careing about what we put into our soil.

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I would love to have copper labels but I am too cheap and not crafty.

I bought a refurbished Brother labeling machine and metal mini-rose labels. the labeling machine hooks up to the computer, so you can both maintain a data base of all your plants AND print out labels that last year after year. I got the idea from a NW Perennial Assn. open gardens event in Olympia a couple of years ago--several gardeners used the method. It's not cheap, but the labels last year after year.

Maybe I'm the odd person out here, but I've never cared for the aesthetic of a bunch of plant tags cluttering up the garden. Looks like a bunch of little grave markers in winter and they inevitably get lost or misplaced (I've seen crows rip them out and dump them wherever) even if the labeling info/method remains intact.

I'm on a first name basis with nearly every plant in my garden - and there are a LOT - but I also informally map planting areas and note cultivar names of less obviously defined plants (like my collection of umpteen hostas and dwarf conifers, including a couple dozen forms of Hinoki) for reference and the very real possibility of memory failure.

Since I am too cheap to buy copper labels I do what Gardengal does. Memorize and keep notes.

Nothing in my garden is labeled but I have lists of some plants like my Clematis and Rhododendrons, though I find I mostly remember them.

I wish I had everything written down and have been working on it but am not done.

I'm with you garden girl, when I finally achieve a planting that actually looks good, or at least I think it does, labels certainly spoil it. I map as well, but that book never seems to be where I think it is, therefore the labels. I have one of those 'Black Holes" lurking in our house that seems to swallow up everything I'm looking for, eventually it gets indigestion and spits things out, very stingily I might add. Crows, yes the crows, they are the reason I now spike my labels to the ground, when covered with mulch the crows don't seem to find them.
Speaking of crows, they will soon be pruning the Robinia tree, they love the brittle dead bits, must get out and tidy up under that tree or I'll have to invest in a hard hat, they do drop a lot, I think they like playing bombardier.

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I got the copper labels from Charley's greenhouse (website/catalog). Currently they only have the type that you stick in the ground, but I imagine they'll carry the smaller ones like mine again soon. I bet some of the big box hardware stores, and other nurseries carry them too. The patina is nice and makes them less (though not totally) obvious.

I have a love-hate thing with labels. Part of me finds them intrusive so I do keep them to a minimum. Or at least try to. :) If I'm lazy, or out of the copper ones, I stick the plastic one deeeeeep in the soil so only its edge is visible on close inspection if I need help remembering a specific variety/cultivar (the genus and species names I've got memorized of course, but specific cultivars I often need help remembering for some plants where I've collected a ton and the differences are subtle). By the time the plastic label is gone, or broken, I've usually got the cultivar names memorized too, though not always.

I like mdvaden's idea of cutting your own copper for labels. I may give that a try since Charley's doesn't have the type of labels I bought right now.

If I did a better job of recording who is where, then I wouldn't need them, so that's more incentive for me to make a map or a spreadsheet.

Take care and happy gardening,
Grant

Mouse Graveyard is the term I remember someone using here on GW for gardens full of little plant markers. It certainly detracts from the overall impression of a garden.

However, I use the tag the plant came with, stuck in the mulch BEHIND the plant. It lasts as long as it lasts due to time, squirrels, crows etc. If I can't remember the name of the plant as I pass it, I look at the tag. Once the tag has disappeared, I use memory. Some plants are only background/filler plants for me, ie any Hosta, and those i'll try to remember the general colour and form and not care about the name. Colour and form is how I garden anyway.

As for a source of copper tags and other types, here's a link to Lee Valley Tools plant label page. I warn you to not stray to the rest of their catalogue... ;)

... Don

Here is a link that might be useful: Lee Valley Plant Markers

Don,thanks for the link to the copper plant tags, just what I'm looking for.
As for straying..... Toooo Late!!! :-)

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I use cut up plastic blinds. The metal one can have very sharp edges. I grow and experiment with many varieties of tomatoes, squash and broccoli. For me I like to reach down and see immediately what variety I am picking. I cut the blinds in about 4" sections and then in half down the middle. For perennials they can be buried next to the plant or pushed down under the soil at the edge of a pot. I find that a soft pencil lasts as well or better than permanent marker. A blind at the thrift store will cost about $3 or less if it is in poor condition. One blind will provide 1000 tags.

"Mouse graveyard"!, very funny! I love it.

The hanging copper tags in the Lee Valley link are the type that I was talking about. Thanks for sharing the link!

Take care, labeled or not. :)
Grant