Posted by jodik 5 Central IL (My Page) on Sun, Jul 6, 08 at 13:11

I was browsing the orchid listings on eBay, and I happened upon this listing for Epiphyllum cacti... about halfway down the page, I found that this seller includes embossed aluminum tags with her auction items, which are plant cuttings.
If you look closely, you can see that these tags are either hand made, or could very easily be handmade! I would think the material is either some type of aluminum can or sheet aluminum, cut out with tin snips and embossed by pressing hard with a stylus or other pointed writing utensil. A hole for hanging is punched in one end with a sharp tool or a hole punch.

Either a piece of wire or a zip-tie could be used to keep the tag with the plant, or it could be hung directly on the pot, providing the pot is plastic and can be hole-punched near the top. Or, the aluminum could simply be cut into strips instead of ovals, as the photo shows, and stuck in the pot as you would any other store bought tag.

I think this is one answer to our tag problems! Making them seems easy enough, as long as the aluminum can be obtained... and once embossed, the name is there forever!

Just thought I'd share this... we're forever complaining about fading tags!

$0.25 a piece, just write on them with a ball point pen. More expensive than tin cans, but you aren't going to cut yourself in the process either...;-]

Cheers,
Russ