Best way to mark location of bulbs?

Hi everyone,

I would appreciate advice on marking locations of bulbs so that I don't inadvertently dig them up when there is no above-ground foliage.

In mulling it over the past couple weeks, the best idea i came up with is:
Use old bamboo stakes which have broken, or cut up longer ones into 7 to 10-inch pieces. I figure my long-handled loppers will work fine on the bamboo stakes. After the bulbs bloom, when it is time to fertilize, insert the bamboo stakes around the clumps and fertilize. The next year, in early spring or spring, whenever the new shoots appear, fertilize and remove the bamboo stakes. That way, the bamboo stakes do double duty, reminding me where the clump is, and also whether I have fertilized.

If anyone has any other ideas, i'd love to read them. Also, if there have been threads on this in the past, and anyone can give me a link or an effective way to search for same, much obliged.

Thanks!

Thanks

Ella, that has been an ongoing problem for me too. I'm so bad about getting dig happy and sinking the trowel right through a bulb! My most effective way of preventing that has been planting something right on top of the bulbs that blooms at a different time of year. Like spring blooming Dianthus planted over Lilies, or Toad Lilies over Daffodils. Any other means of marking ends up blowing away on this hill where I live.

Ella I use the cut up bamboo stakes too. They blend into the garden but are easy to see when you're working in that spot. I only leave them up an inch. I do overplant alot of my tulips with lilies so I don't have to stake those.

Somewhere I have seen a recommendation to use clear plastic knives, which sounds pretty inconspicuous. I've used popsicle/craft sticks in the past but they tend to get lost in the garden before I need them, too short I think.

I like to plant bulbs under perennials too, but that doesn't help me much because I am a plant mover :0). Maybe I will try bamboo this year.

Last year i was mulling over the idea of having my hubby make me some hardwood stakes with his woodworking equipment, maybe natural, maybe painted, but it seems like old bamboo stakes would be the least conspicuous, cheap & easy. I would be able to see them, but most people wouldn't notice them at all.

Several years ago, I planted various bulbs under 3 or 4 clumps of Lamiastrum galeobdolon ‘Herman’s Pride’ and I HATE the way it looks. Am hoping to dig it all up this year and separate. Generally i just don't like it when things run into each other.

Dahlia, do you leave them in the ground year-round? Maybe my idea of putting them in and taking them out over and over again is just making it more complicated than it needs to be.

Yes Ella all my springs bulbs and lilys remain in the ground all year.

Oh, Dahlia, I meant the bamboo stakes. . . Do you leave the bamboo markers in year-round?

Oops LOL. I do leave the stakes in. I got tired of digging things up by accident.

I have been marking all my plants with alum. tags, which I made from aluminum duct pipe. It's thin and I cut it into strips and write the name of the plant & color on it, using a paint pen - works great and holds up to the weather. I attach them by punching a hole in the edge, stringing thin wire through the hole, and wrapping the wire around a short bamboo stake.

Hi Kay,

For labeling the names of perennials, I use zinc hairpin labels from a mail-order company in Paw Paw, Michigan. I print a clear adhesive label with my Brother P-Touch labeler, black printing on clear adhesive tape, either 3/4" or 1" wide depending on how many lines of text I want, and the label can be as long as 3.5 inches and still fit on the zinc plate. I affix the P-Touch label to the zinc plate, then cover with UV-resistant weather-proofing tape. This was something I read about in Fine Gardening or Horticulture, somebody sent it into the magazine as a reader tip.

The hairpin goes into the ground to the right of the perennial clump, from whichever direction I would normally be looking at it, i.e. depending on its orientation to the nearest path. (If I have a habit of putting the label on the right, then I have some idea where to look for the label a couple yrs later when it's hidden by foliage.)

The labelmaker allows a fair amount of text, and it can be helpful to have some of the care instructions right in the garden. Here's the text for a label I made recently for my first clematis:
Clematis x ‘Ramona'. Full sun to pt shade.
H 10-12 ft in 5 yrs. Any moist, well-drained soil.
Mulch 4-6" in late fall. Keep watered thru fall.

The labelmaker I bought attaches to my computer via USB. I generally "log in" my plant purchases into a WordPerfect table, typing in all the info from the plastic tag, price, date bought. Then I copy the info and paste it just a bit lower, and do the bulk of my editing for the label right there in Word Perfect. After I've come up with the basic text for the label, I copy it and paste it into the Brother software, do a bit more editing, and then print to the P-Touch tape. It is all very convenient, done right here at my desk. (I keep the zinc plates, hairpins, and weatherproffing tape here too.)

When I originally began using the zinc plates and hairpins many years ago, i used the marking pencil available from the mail order company, but the pencil will fade away almost completely as yrs go by. Then I switched to Dymo tape, which is not bad, but as the years go by, the Dymo tape can fall off. I've only been doing the Brother labels a few years; so far that seems the best, altho there is more expense, and the clear tape is typically not in the stores so I have to order it from an office supply company. (White tape stands out a lot more in the garden, not good.)

After I have made the zinc hairpin label, the plastic label which came w the plant goes into a three ring notebook full of sheet protectors. I cut off the unnecessary pointy bottom, then tape the tag inside the sheet protector. They are in rough alpha order by botanical name, i.e. all the A's are together, then come the B's, and so on. I got the idea for the 3-ring notebk of plastic tags from a guy whose gardens were open to public on a garden tour a few years ago; he had his notebook handy to answer visitors' questions.

For bulbs, I am concerned about marking the perimeter around the bulbs. And the zinc labels are not perfect. The zinc plates are soft and will bend if i accidentally step on them, and the hairpins eventually rust and get nasty.

I am going to take a look at the aluminum and see if I can use it too, maybe for some labeling and also some perimeter marking. Aluminum duct pipe ----is that the duct work that runs our heating and a/c thru the house? Available at Home Depot and the like? And I assume I can cut it with my tin snips?

thanks,
ella

I use this:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://images.orgill.com/200x200/3112471.jpg&imgrefurl=http://brands.hardwarestore.com/577-4188-lambro.aspx&usg=__YuQeBejctoJyiOexpxui_EE_JYs=&h=200&w=200&sz=5&hl=en&start=24&um=1&tbnid=sV7WYCjF5Cuq0M:&tbnh=104&tbnw=104&prev=/images%3Fq%3Daluminum%2Bduct%2Bpipe%26ndsp%3D20%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-US%26sa%3DN%26start%3D20%26um%3D1

It's the third image from the left, called aluminum Snap Lock pipe.

I cut it with regular scissors.

Great, I've put it on my errand list!
Thanks.