Article and most photos by Gail Jones-Nemeth, Portage County Master Gardener Volunteer
One of the biggest challenges for gardeners is being able to associate the name of a plant with the actual plant. Perennials present a particular challenge because some even die down to the ground in the fall and reappear in the spring. Do you really remember every plant you’ve planted, where you planted it, and what each plant needs to thrive? As I get older, retaining the names, locations and needs of the plants I’ve planted gets more challenging.
If you bring a plant home from a nursery, there is probably a detailed plant label that includes the scientific name, variety name, properties of the plant such as mature size, flower color, and blooming period, as well as care information such as the amount of sun and water needed and type of soil. Unfortunately, these tags often become brittle over time, break, and are lost.
For those plants that have lost their labels, or never had them, AI tools may help identify your plant, but they are not always 100% accurate. iNaturalist is free and uses community review to identify plants, animals, and fungi. PlantNet (Pl@ntNet) is a free, ad-free plant identification tool that shows likely matches. Plant.id identifies plants and can suggest possible pests or diseases. Google Lens, Apple Visual Look Up, and Android camera tools can also identify plants from photos without a separate app. PictureThis offers plant identification, disease tracking, watering reminders, and light meters, but requires a paid subscription after initial use.
My solution to remembering plant names is to be consistent about installing labels for my favorite plants and as much additional information as needed. I need to have the constant linkage of the plant with the name— rather like needing people to wear name tags at conferences.
For example, we use cheap wooden popsicle sticks to identify plants in seed starting trays. These labels don’t wear well, but they are good enough while the plants are small with the advantage that the sticks are compostable when no longer needed.
Once the plants are bigger and get moved into cell packs, we often use cheap plastic tags written with a garden marker. Old mini blinds cut into pieces work as well. These are fine for labels needed for a short time, but what we’ve found is that most markers are not stable in UV light and fade quickly.
My friend, Beth Whipple, suggests using black metal labels (approximately 3.5 × 1.25 inches) with 10.5-inch metal stakes, available online. Although the stakes include a white oil-based paint marker, she has found that metallic oil-based markers withstand changing weather without issue. These markers are sold online and in stores, and the labels can be cleaned and reused. She labels her plants when planting, so she remembers everything.
Our collection of plants quickly got out of control, so I’ve switched to using a spreadsheet to track all the various plants along with their related information. For our permanent plantings we have moved to using a label printer with black print on clear plastic sheets. These labels can be configured to include all the pertinent information and can even include QR barcodes. An additional benefit of tracking the plants in a spreadsheet is that the label software can read the spreadsheet and print multiple copies of a label.
Thin plastic plant tags become brittle with time, so we’ve moved to using metal stakes. Our experiment with fancy copper colored metal stakes failed because the copper quickly faded to a dark color and the dark ink on the label became hard to read. We’ve settled on wide stainless-steel markers which have resisted several harsh winters so far.
There are many DIY homemade craft ideas for plant labels, as well, but some of these options do not leave room for much information. An online search will provide links for these ideas. However you decide to add labels to your garden, the effort this fall to tag your plants will mean that you can remember what you planted next spring.
For more information:
Plant Labels
New Plants? Hang On To The Labels!
Two Crafty Homemade Plant Labels
DIY Plant Labels Ideas
Ohio State University Extension’s Portage County Master Gardener Volunteer program. As Extension Master Gardener Volunteers, our articles will never endorse specific products or companies. Questions/comments/suggestions/want to find out more/become a PCMGV: 330-296-6432 • OSU PCMGV web • portco.mgv.oh@gmail.com • FB PCMGV • PCMGV Speaker’s Bureau