Home made plant markers

I have had a rough time with the name tags of plants that I started back in Dec 2004. They wintered over out in my greenhouse. I used siding and a permanent markers. By the time spring was here and they had several watering. The marker was washed off. So we came up with this idea to use a coat hanger, aluminum from a gutter repair job that we had done on our house a few years ago. We used an engraver. After our pieces were cut we engraved the plant name into it and used some black paint and wiped it off to allow the name to be bolded.

Here is another pic of them. I think they will work.

Thank is alot of work and a super idea. Even when the black comes off you will still have the name.

Blessings,
Sandy ^8^

My husband engraves the name and I paint them and make the coat hanger bracket for them. Grand total of 5 minutes per tag. :)

For permanent markers, I invested in zinc markers from www.everlastlabel.com. Yes they cost some money, but they last and they look great. I'm a serious collector with 100's of daylilies, irises, hostas, heucheras, sedums, roses, etc. So I needed something fast, pretty, permanent and affordable. After the initial investment, they're pretty affordable.

I invested in a Brother Ptouch 2200 label maker too. The labels won't fade for years. I stick them on the zinc markers and they look so professional.

For temporary markers, I use mini blinds cut to about 5 or 6 inch pieces. I also use my Ptouch labeler to make labels for them so they don't fade. You can usually get old mini blinds at yard sales for about a buck or brand new for 3 or 4 bucks. And they'll make about 300 markers.

I lucked into a lot of about 6 sets of metal mini blinds for $4 at a yard sale and I scarfed them up! The plastic ones get brittle in the winter and break. But the metal ones will hold up.

Just some more ideas if you need any.

NancyAnn

Good deal on your metal miniblinds! I bought a small set of white Levolor aluminum blinds on sale at Lowe's for just this purpose. They were $9.76 and there are 81 slats and they're 19" wide. I can make 3 long tags from each, and two have holes in them already, handy for hanging them with wire.

I tried writing deeply with a ballpoint over a spongy surface to emboss them, but it hurts my hand too much to do them that way. Somewhere (somewhere!) we have an engraver, but in the meantime I have put my Zip Painty oil-based paint markers to use on them. The paint held up great on my vinyl miniblind plant markers the last two years.

http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/525402/
Two ideas here. Should have posted on this forum in the first place.