Plant labels?

[Foggy Paul]

I see that quite a few of you have professional-looking plant labels, like you'd see in an arboretum. I made my own a while ago, but my handwriting is sloppy and the labels are too small to get in the entire plant name when it's long. They also don't seem to be holding up very well. Anyone found a source for these that doesn't cost as much as a small plant? Or have a good DIY method?

 

[mnorell]

You can purchase custom plant markers in many styles. Etsy has several vendors who create these with some level of customization. For example, the photo below is from a vendor named "SheffieldHandmade" and has the classic Botanical Garden look. But you will always have to pay something for sturdy, quality-appearing tags that will last. Nearly 40 years ago I was planting my first landscape and wondered the same thing...I finally went to a place that did bowling/trophy plaques and they made up beautiful small plaques with a brown-on-tan design with a very nice typeface and a sort of semi-transparent protective layer that was really beautiful, didn't detract from the plantings, and was riveted to strong flat metal stakes. If I could create them again, I would...but I've lost them and photos of them as well, so I would be back working from scratch. But there are lots of options, you may just have to be creative, and you can always call your favorite botanical garden and connect with their staff to find out what they do for their own markers. If your budget is limited, perhaps just consider making a few for your largest, most "permanent" specimens and handle the others on a "marker of the month" club basis, or with thick, heavy-duty plastic plant-markers/tags (and you will want to use a nice soft graphite pencil...virtually anything else will fade in the weather, I think most of us have learned this the hard way).