it rubs off with dirt/abrasion, but pencil on discarded metal window blinds slats is pretty decent. Larger pieces with lab marker (thin crayon) might last longer! good luck!

I have found a paint pen to be the most fade resistant way of marking plants. Sharpies faded quickly. I found a paint pen in the craft store. You can then mark wood, terra cotta, stone, metal, etc.

I've found pencil on anything works well... pencil on popsicle sticks... :o) on window blinds...

My advice is do not count on anything to mark anything for long when exposed to the elements.

Use something that lasts for decades and place an imprint on it. An example would be using soft metals that do not corrode quickly like aluminum or copper and using a pencil or some other instrument to 'dent' the metal. Use these as tags. Lee Valley Tools (online) sells copper tags inexpensively.

If you go to a botanical garden you will notice there are never any plastic or wood products with pencil, pen or marker on them, without exception they use soft metal or etched plastic. There is a reason for this ;-)

eww those copper ones are pretty (username) I checked it out because I have looked for plant markers to last as well. Those are a much better price too than the ones I bought at Richters.com. I found thiers to be very hardy stone ones and quite nice, but it cost a fortune if you want to mark every plant you have. Thanks username for that website info.

Yea! I have gone to Lee Valley & vertitas and ordered 50 of those copper plant tags. Price $8.50 plus shipping. Excellent. Now these plant tags plus some homemade stakes will probably not be as elegant as a botanical garden but then, neither is my garden. I think the labelling will add a great deal. When someone asks what "that" plant is, I will not have to stumble around in my memory for the name. Thank ya'll for your help!! Now comes the daunting task of Latin identification. Thank you again.

My trick is to cut up soda cans. Just lop off the top and the bottom and then uncurl the rectangle and cut. I make pretty rounded plant tags out of them. Putting them on a soft surface (back of the phone book), I write on them using a ball point pen to etch. Then I stick it down in the soil.

Mind you, I write on the side that was once the inside of the can. Not the red Coke side.

Sometimes I can't read my etching, but I find that plucking the tag out of the ground and "planting" it upside down, then plucking it up again and brushing off the dirt puts soil in the etchings and makes the writing stand out.

Just wanted to toss this out there as a way to save $$ on metal plant tags.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pictoral Instructions

These ideas have all been extremely useful. I have discovered that no one method works everywhere. My herbs are not neat and tidy. They get tall and run intertwined with each other. Most of the season here in Tennessee I don't see the ground. But one idea I found seemed most attractive for those of you with those pretty gardens. This lady finds flat rounded stones, paints the names on them and coats them with a outdoor poly. This would last for years and then just slap a refresher coat on once in awhile. Probably this would last as long as the plant was there. I like the idea of recycling coke cans. I am attaching my copper plates to varying heights of thin stakes. I'm using everything from bamboo to apple wood. Good winter project. Happy Rosea Alcea.

I have also tried all kinds of labelling for plants over the years...

I do not like the marker on plastic or wood for the same reason you all gave...marker fades and the plastic breaks and the wood goes rotten and fades the marker on it.

I like username_5's idea...I have done the copper indented tags for years. Love it. Would highly recommend it to all "listening". I make these and give them as gifts to friends and family. I buy my copper by the 12" wide and 25' long roll at the craft store. It is called tooling copper. Soft enough to cut with scissors and to be able to hole punch a hole in the end. I cut 1" x 3" tags. Then I take a metal clothes hanger and cut it into 4-5" long pieces. A little twist and the wire is wrapped securely with the tag attached. The tooling copper can easily be written on, indenting the copper permanently and looks "professional". I place it just behind the plant and push the wire right into the ground with the tooling copper tag at ground level. A little cleaning of the tag after and I know the name of the plant once again without looking at my map of the flowerbed. The tags I make cost me about 4 cents each for the copper(nothing for the hanger) to make.

I have about 1000 different kinds of perennials in my yard and I want to know the name of each one. I do not enjoy finding a plant, whether it be an iris or daylily, of which I have hundreds, that has no name.

Pop cans would work too. Why not hole punch the end and place it on a wire coat hanger "stake"? I think that it would be easier to work with and be less likely to disappear from the perennial than just the tag pushed into the ground next to the perennial.

Just a comment about others who do not know what they are talking about...I was just on a different site in the web where someone was giving advice on marking plants by using plastic labels and markers (mentioning that you need to remark each year)and if that didn't work to take a picture of each plant in bloom and attach it to the plant or to put a rock behind each perennial with the name in acrylic paints on it. Well...very impractible for most of us. Once a plant is planted in my yard I do not want to take a marker to it each year to rename it again. Rocks...1000 in my yard...no way..too easy to be moved by a "practical joker" or kids not realizing the importance of the rock in its place. Pictures of the plant...I do so, but file them alphabetically in a filing box inside and would never attach them to the plant in my flowerbed. But she knew best and all for her to rename all her flowers each year and to replace all the plastic tags as they go brittle after a year or two. Some people...

At my age I have come to appreciate all different kinds of information. Some will work well for me and others will not. I am most truly grateful for any and all ideas. I learn both by information from others and by experience. Each garden, too, is as individual as it's master. A garden can be as diverse as one plant, named Audrey to a Southern Folk Art garden, to a Japanese Bonsai garden, to a English Cottage Garden, to a patch by the front door. Each gives joy and love back to its master and provides a quilt piece to life. I am truly astonished and in awe of every single garden I have ever seen. I thank every single one of you who respond to my questions.

I only label my tomatoes. I find these plant markers work great

I mark them with a {{gwi:917086}}

Oh yes, tomatoes. I'm too wimpy to grow heirlooms but I can never remember what variety my cherry or Roma's are and some of them are just volunteers from the year before. I think those plant markers from that web site are very attractive and would work for some of my low growing thymes and violas. The varieties of crocus in my garden I've never known as they were part of a work exchange. Most of my herb varieties will just be marked "rosemary" or "rosmarinus officinalis". I think my experience underscores the need for appropriate labelling. I experimented by walking through my garden and attempted to recite what each plant was and it's source. Although I remembered all the gifts from other gardeners, for most plants I couldn't remember the source and for many I struggled to recall the variety. I have a remembrance garden and to my dismay I couldn't remember one of the varieties of lillies. Plus, for the use of herbs in herbalism the specific variety is most important.

While longevity will vary, here's some ways to label your garden plants.

Here is a link that might be useful: Make your own garden markers.