LOL I just came across one about two hours ago! Cleaning out where the trees were cut down and I found a tag for Southern Gentleman holly. I actually think I planted this one. I had it in a pot out in that area for some time (more sun) but I think I did eventually plant it. Or maybe that one died and I replaced it, lol, but I do have a pollinator holly planted and I think that's him! Lol I left the tag out there this morning so I'll go take another look.

:)

Dee

I generally detach and keep all my plant tags together in a bag. The only exceptions would e if there were two or more plants of a kind and it would e difficult to tell without their tags on them. The orchids (indoors) do still have their tags because some of the cattleyas look like each other and I have killed more orchids than are alive and I might forget which ones I am tending to given the high turnover - I probably killed 60-70 orchids of all kinds and have barely 40 alive, some barely...The tags for the dead plants stay in the bag because the only reason I go looking in the bag is if I need to know what I am growing for some reason (someone wants to know or I want to look up specifics for culture of a particular plant. The advantage of course is that there are no plants whose IDs are now lost. Of course, I have limited growing space and so a much smaller stash of plant tags to handle.

I generally detach and keep all my plant tags together in a bag.

I did this for many years (until recently when I now dispose of them). And so I am not sure why I found this one in the wild when, at that time, I would have kept it for my records.

And this reminds my how @woodyoak zone 5 southern Ont., Canada kept such detailed records of all of her plantings. I saw this when I visited her....showing me all her binders and annotations. We miss you 'woody'.

LOL, yes, and before peering at it, I quickly ponder if it's something still with me or not, most times not, lol.

Just the other day I picked two delphinium tags from empty slots. Planted last year and year before

I find plant tags in the garden all the time! I stick them in my pockets and then I gind then again later in my washing machine!

I log my plants into a spread sheet for record keeping, but where I am, the weeds have been growing all winter and I need tags to tell me where my plants are so I don’t accidentally rip them out during their winter slumber.

So yesterday I went out to get a photo of the plant tag I mentioned I had found. Lol as I was walking out there, I saw another tag laying in the garden!

Here is the original tag I mentioned:

Southern Gentleman holly. As I said, I know I planted a pollinator holly and I'm pretty sure it was this one, but who knows? I may have lost the original SG and gone out and gotten a second, which was the one I planted lol. I need to go see if the planted SG has a tag - that will likely mean it's a second one!

Here is the tag I found when I went out to photograph Southern Gentleman:

A homemade tag, not a nursery tag, but this was a hosta that a generous person on the hosta forum sent me decades ago. It was lovely and I enjoyed it for many years, but I did eventually lose it. But apparently I haven't lost the tag lol. So odd that it's suddenly just lying there in a bit of open ground in the garden!

BTW, in the bottom right of the above photo, you can see a whitish rectangle. That is another homemade label made from a milk jug. Often when I plant my wintersown plants I cut the milk jug they were sown in into tags. This is often with my annuals, and only meant to be temporary, but I often find one or two a season out in the garden. I label my dahlias this way as well, again temporarily, as when I dig them I throw the label into the bag they will overwinter in.

:)

Dee

I might find one or 2 in the compost heap (home-made labels) but anything from plants I have bought goes in the bin and any labels put in pots are carefully and gently prised from the pots, by Hazel, my Welsh collie, and hidden in the dog bed. She especially enjoys foraging for plant labels (sticks?) so nothing lasts long once removed from the greenhouse benches. My last collie used to do this too, so whether it is some sort of neurotic sheepdog 'herding' thing, I dunno.

I tell myself I am going to do ground plans, keep records and notes every single year...but have never managed more than an enthusiastic month or so. I do come across old plant 'journals' (which degenerate into a despairing wail of fail)...and invariably have the same yearly rubbish written down, hardly anything of which relates to plants or useful notes.

Love those pics Dee...those are some dirty tags :)

Thanks rouge!

Rosa, I'm telling you, we are twins separated at birth.

THIS. This is me.

"... I tell myself I am going to do ground plans, keep records and notes every single year...but have never managed more than an enthusiastic month or so. I do come across old plant 'journals' ..."

I have at least half a dozen "new" garden journals on my computer, all cheerfully started with notes on weather, plant purchases, plant placement, conditions, doings in the garden, photos, etc. And all just abruptly stopping a few weeks later!

I also have scattered around the house (and in random drawers and even gardening tool bags) various envelopes and scraps of paper with rudimentary garden plans on them, usually written as I researched plants online. And often duplicated, as my scraps go missing and I end up doing the same research a few months later, with accompanying notes on more scrap paper.

I'm curious as to all you folks who do NOT leave the tags in the garden, but bring them in. How do you remember what any given plant is in the garden? (I used to remember every single one of them but those days are fading fast lol!) Are you guys actually people who do indeed actually KEEP garden journals? And actually write in them every year and actually keep them going? Do you guys actually keep... RECORDS?? Lol!!

:)

Dee

I keep records! Sometimes when I’m getting tired in the garden, I can push myself to get a little more done because I want to be able to record it in my garden journal. I want to be able to say I got this or that done that day. So thinking of making note of my progress motivates me to do more.

I also have lots of notebooks from the days when I had photos printed and wrote everything on notebook paper by hand. Doing it that way became too hard to deal with.

And because of my thorough record keeping I know where everything is planted. LOL! So NOT true! I’m always coming across something I forgot about or am just blanking out on what the name is.

And I find plant tags all the time of long gone treasures. Makes me think about how plastic does not fade away.

sandyslopes when I first started gardening I kept a three-ring binder - it actually ended up being THREE binders. It was alphabetical, and every time I added a plant I pasted a picture from a catalog, copied the catalog description, and then wrote when and where I planted it, and notes on it for a few seasons. I still have them (25 years later) and still like to look through them, although it is a bit disheartening to see how many plants I've lost lol.

Funny, while I'm sure the main reason I stopped doing that was because of time constraints - kids getting older (and not napping lol), activities, going back to work, etc - I do think one reason I stopped was because of computers! Once I got a computer, I didn't seem to take the time I used to to write things down, write them out, cut and paste (literally and physically lol) pictures in the book. I think computers have done that to all of us in some way or another.

Found a few more tags yesterday and today!

One of the many roses I killed (and forgot I ever had lol!)

At least these guys were annuals, so it's not like I killed them lol

:)

Dee

Dee, I had so many plants that didn’t make it that I made a separate notebook for them. I called it “Formers” because “Plants I Killed” was too depressing, lol!

I had to resurrect this thread because of a tag I found today.

I was emptying out some old pots, saw a tag sticking out. Pulled it out and saw this:

OMG I laughed so hard. The funny thing is, this isn't my tag - not my handwriting, and I never used old metal blinds to make tags. This must have been from a plant swap. I guess I decided to take a chance. Wish I could remember what it turned out to be!

:)

Dee

so many plants called noid.

A hoot HU etc :)!

Tag, finally visible come the Fall. It has been in this location for probably a decade.

"Rio Carnival"