Name tag mysteries

I so carefully labled all my epis. So carefully!!!! In the past I did not bother keeping the labels on my plants but when I started buying epis I wonted to make sure if I shared I could tale others what they where. But I ran into problems.

First the sun will fade even so called permanent makers out.

Second tropical storm winds will blow the tags out of the state.

Third THOSE *&^$#$@!!! FUZZY TAILED RATS------ sorry about the shouting.

Those sweet squirrels have made it their job to knock over and spill all my epis. They have manage to knock over a third of the pots.

Any one wont to eat some squirrels cooked in rice???

ROFL Wren! I hear ya and know exactly what you are talking about! When I joined DG two years ago I decided I wanted to correctly ID and label every single one of my plants. I had about 15 or so orchids hanging out under a tree all spring/summer and those dratted fuzzy tailed little critters decided to pull the labels out of each and every one! I was even finding orchids out of their baskets, dumped on the ground, and all of the spagnum moss missing from the baskets! Either the birdies or the squirrels must have wanted it for nesting material! I also found a couple of empty baskets and no sign of the plants that had been in them! I figured some critter must have taken a liking to orchids and decided to take a few back to the nest for their spouse!

When I labeled all of my house plants, I made sure to use the (so called) permanent markers, and they have faded to where they are not readable at all! I read somewhere on here about using a lead pencil ... supposedly it would not wear or fade .... FAT CHANCE! The ones with pencil are faded too. I think it must be our weather here in Florida, nothing seems to work if it is outside in the sun or rain. I am not about to start knitting or crocheting or monogramming little labels for plants, LOL. I am getting old and my memory gets worse every day. I used to know the botanical name and common name of every plant I own and now I can stand and stare at a common plant and KNOW that I KNOW what the heck it is but I just draw a blank! I guess if I do trades and am not sure of the name I will just have to label it a "Whatchamacalllit".

I know your pain. I don't use tags as much as I used to. I now am putting all my plants into a database. Houseplants, succulents, epis, garden. Plants I want, and plants I have.

I have in that database, where and when I got the plant, cultural information, and a history of repots, flowering and survival. And I have a category for the plants that died.

Mine resides on a PDA that I am wedded to as my memory bank. I am thinking of migrating it to my computer in Excel or Access, as a PDA database is a bit of a pain.

I went this way as I find it very handy to carry my plant list with me, and have as much information as I can about my plants available to me, as I forget.

I just rebuilt the plant tags in my collection from the database, as I generally know what the plant is, but not specifically. It also helps to have the list to communicate about the plants here, and at nurserys.

Not that I think everyone should have a database on their PDA, but I do and it helps, especially since I have almost 300 plants that I track.

The problem is I have over a hundred epis and almost all look alike. I may be able to Id some when they bloom as I have a file box with the info in it. Some of the newer ones still have the name written on them so I have made new labels and these are the ones those pesty squirrels have been playing with the most so I have been able to outsmart them some.

I still think we should have a cook out and have SQUIRREL as the main meat.

Well, you know that its getting close to Brunswick Stew time.

yes it is and we have some very fat squirrels. I have had squirrels cooked in rice- it is a little too boney-but good.

And they are pushing their luck a little to much, it is bad enough they eat all the bird seeds but when they start messing with my epis they are in big trouble!!!!!!

LOL Analogdog ... you remind me of my husband with the technical stuff!

I am technically challenged, don't own a PDA. I have many different kinds of plants but the only thing I've done is print out a couple of pages from Plant Files on some of them and filed them in a file cabinet! Of course I rarely go back to the file cabinet to look at what I've printed and I know there are duplicates and possibly triplicates printed of some. It bet it does make it easier to have everything logged into a database on a PDA!

Wren: I have two Epi cuttings I got in trade a couple of years ago and she used a permanent marker and wrote the letter A and B right on the stem. I was new and don't remember who the trade was from so have no idea what the letter's meant and didn't think to ask at the time. When I repotted them last spring the letters were still there. I don't particularly like the idea of marking on the foliage like that though ... and since the labels seem to go missing out of the pots I started using the stick on labels right on the pots ... trouble is, with weather and sun ... the writing fades out on those too.

LOL, A cookout - yes, but Squirrel BBQ ... no thanks! Gross! LOL. Even though they are plentiful little creatures and they drive me crazy with emptying the bird feeders and digging in my plants, I don't think I could eat a squirrel. ^_^

Oh my goodness, Wren - are you serious? You've actually eaten cooked squirrel meat? Yuck! I don't think I've ever heard of anyone eating squirrel for real!

Ugh! I googled and found this: http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/15/how-do-you-clean-and-cook-a-squirrel

and this, about dehydrated squirrel meat! : http://www.internet-grocer.net/squirrel.htm

Hi. What can I say I am a southern girl, I have eatten deer, rabbit, turtle but no possons

And ... scroll down - some recipe's for you: http://plantanswers.tamu.edu/recipes/squirrel.html

I think I have to take a break now or I'm going to barf ... literally!

Wren: I was born, raised and have lived in the south my entire life but have never eaten rabbit, deer,possum, turtle etc. I do eat cow meat, love steaks and hamburgers, oh, and chicken ... but that's about as adventurous as I will ever get!

Cute sites.
My dad and uncle use to go squirrel hunting untill a hunter shot a squirrel right over their heads.
Venison makes great jerky.

I have eatten gator it is very good. But will not eat frog legs or pickled pig feet.

I've never had gator meat. My husband has eaten frog legs but not me. He said it tasted like chicken. And, ugh on the pig's feet too! I had a friend once who loved that ... gross!

We ate shark once but it was tasteless to me.

Have had shark I like it. Mom use to eat the pig feet but the smell make me sick, she also likes frog legs. Do you know that they kick when they are being fried??

I lived down south back as a teenager. 2 years.

I have had snapping turtle stew. I saw the snapper before they dispatched it. I have had brunswick stew with chicken, squirrel and beef. I have had ostrich and gator. Never had a Rocky Mountain oyster, not due to the lack of opportunities.

Years ago, I had a roommate that was an inspector on a Korean fishing boat, she came back with a huge bag of dried fish and squid that was outrageously good. I am still looking for more. Seattle is privy to more weird food to eat.

The Asians eat more odd stuff than I could shake a stick at. Durian- it's a big spiky melon. Tastes very sweet and nice, smells strongly of onion. Jellyfish, sea cucumbers, algaes, and other creatures. Wow. I will never eat all of it. Some is too weird, but there is also way too much to choose from. I recently tried Unagi, Japanese smoked eel. Tasty, but not my thing.

I LOVE Unagi....among most sushi...too bad I live in the middle of nowhere now, and have no sushi places around me. Closest would probably be memphis...about 1.5 hrs away 8-(. Havent tried the squirrel yet, but one of the guys at work goes on and on about it all the time...maybe hell bring me some sometime lol.

If they don't start leaving my epis alone you can have all the squirrels you wont. Had to repot 3 today. One was a well grown seedling that a large piece broke off of. I moved the epis off the top shelf so now the furry tailed rats are going through the lower shelf, knocking the pots off. There is enough soil on the carport floor to grow corn in. &%$#@&^%^$!!!!!! SQUIRRELS!!!!!!

I've been trying everything to scare my squirrels off too. I dont think I could ever kill them though..nothing against it.....just not my personal choice. I have a rabbit cage on my front porch. Somehow the squirrels actually get in the cage with my rabbit, and eat his food. They are not scared of us, and think they can do it right there in front of us. The good thing, is that I guess it distracts them from my plants, as they have never bothered with them...not yet anyways. They have chewed holes in my humming bird feeders though. I had to switch to glass feeders. I believe it was them anyways...if not them, Im not sure what.

Rats! We have problems with them too, out side. But I don't think I would eat one.

I really would not kill the squirrels but I incourage my dog to chase them.

They are not eating the epis just knocking them off. I do not know why they think the shelves are a path way, but they do.
There isn't any food on those shelves nor has there ever been.

I have these two beagles that keep the squirrels off the ground. However, keeping the dogs quiet is a bit of a chore. :-)

It was great fun to have my two super sniffers working diligently the other morning sniffing the ground, while a squirrel worked its way along the fence unnoticed by them.

Its said that a beagles brain is controled by its noise.
I have a belgian tervuren their brains control everything including me. He has caught 3 squirrels so far. But he don't understand why they wont play with him anymore. The poor things die of shock, there is no teeth marks on them.

We just came back in from playing ball. He knows that to go out to play ball I first have to take off my socks, so when he wonts to go out to play with the ball he takes my socks off. Who is the boss here??????

No, beagles brains are controlled by the nose.

I have watched one of my dogs scent track a cat. It walked right into it. And that cat got to strike first. If it was a visual as we are it would have seen the cat, but no, they are as visual as we can sniff.

Personally, I have to be checked by the Dominant dog whenever I come home from being out, and if I have eaten, I will get licked on the lips. If I have met another animal, I will get the thrid degree, and I will have to come up with a name and act calm about it.

Its quite bizarre to live with a scent hound.

You should try to live with a terv. they are classed as a herding breed but they are all around working dogs. I tell people it is like living with a mischiefous hyper active intellagent 2 year old. They have a brain and they know how to use it. When I tell Andre that we will go out with the bike I would tell him to wait will I put on my shoes once day when I said that he ran and get me a shoe. I did not teach him this he figured it out by his self

Terv?

Back to the thread at hand. I recently bought some tags that had a pencil in the bag. I started using it, and guess what? Pencil does not fade in the sun.

The best non-fading pencil is a soft one - a 5B or 6B for choice. you will have to sharpen it a lot as it will wear down fast and try not to rub on the label for a month or so until the lead sets completely as it can smear until then, but the writing lasts so long that sometimes I have been cleaning off old labels for reuse and the part of the label surface which was covered by the pencil is still readable after you take it off because it is white and the rest of the plastic label has gone yellow! Some of my labels are now in excess of 30 years old and I loose the info only when the label gets accidentally broken off.

Ciao, KK.

There is also a special "for writing on plastic" kind of lead pencil called a Cellugraph Pencil - I use these as well but they are a bit harder to find than a regular 5B or 6B pencil.

Thank you for the info on the pencils. I have never heard of a 5b or 6b pencil. Where can I get some???

I just get a bag of labels with a pencil in it. I am trying it out but also putting the name in marker on the other side of the label.

It looks like most of the pots that where knocked over and the labels lost still have the names written on the plants. I the took the pots off the top shelf that the squirrels have been getting on, now they are using the lower shelves.

A terv is a Belgian Tervuren a breed of dog. I am living with my third one. One of his jobs is to chase the squirrels out of my plants, but it has been so hot he has not been able to go out and chase anything.

Update on labels. Now those darn squirrel seem to be stealing the labels. I had 5 labels fixed up to use when I transplanted 5 passion flowers seedlings, now they are gone.

Darn,blasted fuzzy tailed tree rats!!!!!!! I wonder are they using the labels to mark where they bury there food.

HI wren,
Try an artists supply store for the pencils - they will know what you are talking about. Here are the rules for pencil names
"Lead" ie graphite pencils are named H for hardness or B for black. The commonest pencil, the HB sits in the middle and is a good general purpose tool. You can go from H to 9H on the hardness side - the very high numbers are for engineers drafting plans and such like where you need a very precise line with no chance of it smudging. The soft side goes from B to 6B - every extra B makes the lead slightly softer and stickier so it will adhere better to things like plastic. Artists use these soft pencils because they can smudge the line easily and add other effects to their sketches by further manipulating the initial marks they have made with the pencil. If you can't find a store try looking on line, just Google 6B "mail order" that should guarantee you plenty of hits!

Sorry about your squirrel troubles - we get suburban possums here in Adelaide but they rarely descend out of the trees. Usually the worst thing THEY do is have dominance fights on the roof in the middle of the night, which I might add, is QUITE ENOUGH. Two possums fighting sounds like a combination of a heavy weight WWF round where the combatants are wearing steel capped boots AND assorted beasties making the kinds of noises you normally only hear in a horror film! Here is a good link from the state next door to mine with info about common Australian possums - the one which can become an urban nuisance is the Common Brushtail Possum. Note that these can weigh up to 4.5 kilos (9 pounds). Belligerent large male possums have occasionally been known to kill cats, but sadly it is more often the other way around. Anyhow I bet you are glad you don't have 9 pound squirrels!

http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/DSE/nrenpa.nsf/FID/-5C7EC89239367C7BCA256D900008A996?OpenDocument

TTFN, kk.

Thanks for the info on the pencils.
We do have raccoons and they are much bigger than that 20 or more pounds and they can make wild amount of noise when they fight.

Have you every hear roof rats or mice in an attic. There is no such thing as quit as a mouse. Sounds like a herd of elephants.

So I quess that everyone has their own creatures that bug them. I just wish that they would leave my labels alone.