I let Microsoft Windows help me! I take my pictures each day and write my log of the date and what bloomed. Then I put the pictures on my computer and immediately name them, put them into my folder I made for that year. Windows automatically alphabetizes them.

If I forget or don't have time to put the pictures on the computer that day or for several days, I still have my dated log. Then, when you right click on a picture it shows in properties what date the photo was taken. As long as you keep your log everyday, you can go back and figure them out.

Also, I keep my photos on Flikr. It is easy to upload to it for back up copies and the name you gave it on the computer is there.

An alternate method - if you have them labelled in the garden you could take a pic of the tag and then the plant each time.

I guess my problem is I dont label them on the computer that same day . I do log them as I take the pictures but it always seems that the logs dont match the images after the fact. I would like to find a program that allows you to take the picture and print right on it what it is immediately after the picture is taken even before posting it to the computer . I dont know if that is possible but it sure would be better than what I am managing to do now . I even tried taking a small chalkboard out with me writing the name of the plant on the board taking a picture of it then the flower .......but boy what a pain in the patoot that was! It did work though.

I crop my pictures and label them the same day I take them most of the time.

No help from me!! If I had an organized system I would gleefully be participating in the alphabet posts!! Kudos to you Celeste on your memory! I order the same daylily twice in the same year! So good luck to me remembering all my names. And I am usually racing out to take pics on my phone before work so don’t have that organized notebook either. I always pledge to myself to do better-perhaps this will be the year!

Kate

You can dowload this program "Plant Step". It only costs $29.00 one time. Then when you get a new daylily put the name in program and it will tell you everything about that daylily, who hybridized it, parent names, height, size of flower, etc. It will list them in alphabetical order. Then you can make a tag for your daylily. When they bloom, I take a picture of the tag and then the flower. I go to CVS with sd card from camera and after seeing tag, write the name of the day lily on the picture itself. I do not develop each tag. Then I scan picture of flower into computer. My HP computer is a 2007 model and it quit taking the SD card a long time ago (reason I go to CVS).

this Plant Step program will work on other plants such as hosta. I use to put them into Spread Sheet, but a virus got it. Ugh!

Wow Celeste! You must have a photographic memory! Did you have to study in school?

Oh yes, Brad.....I had to study! I seem to have an expert memory when it comes to things I love, but am prone to forgetfulness when I don't like something. Math was where my mind went blank. I love my daylilies so much I recall all their faces, as if I'm their momma. But throw some numbers my way and my brain freezes solid....lol.

We take lots of pictures every day. To keep track of them, we take the picture of the flower and then a pictures of the tag. I try to label them everyday, but if I don't have time to, I have a record of what flower's photo I took.

Nancy

I do two things to keep organized. First I have an index card for each letter of the alphabet with each daylily on it. I lost a computer file several years ago so I don’t rely on that anymore. I take photos with my iPad so each photo has the date I took it on the photo. I crop and Label the photos on my iPad and put them in a folder, one folder per year. I try to crop and label each day, doesn’t always work out. I’ve got around 100-125 daylilies so its easy for me to remember what they are, some have signs on them.

Sherry

Sann777 Thanks for suggestion . I have Plant Step . have had it for years. It doesnt help !

edited to add: I should say it is a great program but I am just too unorganized to for it to help me I guess.

"I would like to find a program that allows you to take the picture and print right on it what it is immediately after the picture is taken even before posting it to the computer"

After taking the picture rename it to reflect the garden plant name. i,e

1.jpg

2.jpg

Denote with a hyphen for same plant photos

2-1.jpg

2-2.jpg

2-3.jpg

There's also lots of free text overlay on photo apps. Search your app store for "text on photo"

I pretty much do the same on my phone. Snap photo, load image, the app auto loads a text over lay with the data that I want to track, then I select presets on the template or just manually fill it out. Save photo.

At the end of the year I put all the photos into folders based on parentage and then upload that to drive/dropbox. Something like this

Daylilies 2018 (Root folder)

-Cross1 (contains all the photos of said cross)

-Cross2 (contains all the photos of said cross)

After moving the DL's around I make a typical 2d overhead garden blueprint style map to handle where the DL's are.

I will do that Fastlnk Thank you for the suggestion !

Sherry , after reading and rereading suggestions here , I think your idea of the index cards is also a suggestion I am going to use if you don't mind . An alternate source of image info makes so much sense. It is always possible to lose info on the computer whether it be a virus , or just a complete computer failure ....a hands on real physical source of the image and info is a fantastic idea. I know , some will say , store this info in "the cloud" but I don't trust it any more than I trust my computer to hold this info forever.

An alternative back up plan for your computer would be an external hard drive

FYI for everyone--computers and hard drives can go bad but the information is most likely not lost and completely retrievable. The only exception to this is if the hard drive totally freezes up, which is rare. If anyone ever has a computer die and they need the information off of it, I can even give easy directions of how to get it if you or someone can take out the old hard drive.

Signet, it’s good to see you are considering using the cards. It’s a great quick reference for me, sometimes just easier than “logging on”. When I get new daylilies it’s just so easy to add them to my cards before they get planted, or scratch them off the card if they get eliminated. You don’t need electricity or storage space for this back up system.

Sherry

I like the idea of taking the photo of the flower than taking a picture of its tag or vice versa. Tag, then flower. That way once I upload them to my PC, I can then put the text of the name right onto the picture with the flower itself. That may work for me!

I have found 2 apps that allow you to take a picture with your phone and write the name on the image immediately . One is called PicSee the other is called Photo Captions . I am going to give them a whirl along with the index cards Sherry suggested .

I do believe I have found my solution !!! YaY! here is an image I just took of my pup.

I added the text right there and then on the image ( just like I wanted for when I photograph the daylilies ) There will be no extra steps for me other than deciding what font and what color I want the font to be . The program can do much more if I want but I dont really need anything else and the basic app is free ! I will take the image , label it and then when I download to my computer there is no guessing what plant is in that image . Whoo Hoo! I do have several external hard drives so I can copy there as well as do the index card thing.

Which of the two programs did you use?

Hi Lorabell_gw . I used Picsee . Great Program! at least for what I want it for . It has lots of free features including changing text colors , fonts , adding borders etc. Just what I was looking for !!!!