Do you label your plants?

Do you label the plants in your garden?

When I first began growing perennials, it never occurred to me that I'd want to save the cultivar names. My mom had always taken me to Old Westbury Gardens so I knew that they did label plants in public gardens but I never considered it as something done in a private garden.


One of the first things I learned after joining the Long Island Daylily Society was that if you were going to collect plants, you needed some kind of labeling system. Our club bought sturdy markers in bulk and resold them (at no profit) to members. I estimate I bought about 700 of these markers over the past 12 years which was quite an expensive investment in the garden.

This time of year though (that photo was taken last April) my yard is full of these shiny metal markers. It looks like a mouse cemetery!

There aren't any beautiful photos in this post, that's because I don't find labels very beautiful. To tell the truth, I'm getting awfully tired of seeing them in my garden. So what's a person to do if they want to tell one cultivar from another?


Last year I began photographing the plant and the label as I came home from the nursery. I hope that this way I can keep a record on my computer. At least a record of what plants I purchased. You see, I'm not one of those list-type people and I'm also not a garden map guru.

These plastic tags that come with the plants are always sunk into the ground when I first plant my new arrival. The problem with these things is they become brittle and break, creatures move them around the garden and wind and weather create havoc on them (forget about what the leaf blower does!).

Sometimes I write up a second label on a recycled piece of mini-blind (see top photo) and sink that label as far in the hole as possible. The writing stays intact underground, especially if you write it in pencil.

Hosta are the one plant that I don't mind labeling too much, I write the name on a tag and sink it deep into the ground. The Hosta foliage quickly covers this label so I don't have a glaring reminder whenever I look at my garden.

Anna over at flowergardengirl wrote a blog about plant names this morning. She had a good idea of a way to learn your plant names. Now I need a good idea on how to keep track of those names in the garden.

Do you label your plants?