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madabouteu

Labels for plant sales

madabouteu
16 years ago

My local MGA has an annual plant sale and this year I was de facto pretty much in charge of labeling. It's a large sale, so it was a lot of work!!! In earlier years we had put name and price on a homemade label (cut-up plastic windowblind slats) but there were complaints that the labels with cheap prices were being moved to expensive pots by unscrupulous customers. This year, we tried adhesive labels overlain by clear packaging tape. I feel this did not work well; the tape and labels did not stick well to many pots, and with terracotta the moisture seeped through and ruined the labels.

How do you label plants for your local sales event? My own feeling is that the amount of "label migration" is very low and that is the better method, but if you have a better idea I would be very glad to hear it.

BTW, I think we could solve the problem by using adhesive price tags put on the last week; the amount of water damage in a week is small, and the adhesive labels cannot be moved without it showing. And who would bother to move a label with just ID info?

Comments (10)

  • napapen
    16 years ago

    At our last sale, the pots had a colored circle on them. Different colors, different prices. One big label for the whole section of one type of plant. It went well.

    Penny

  • seamommy
    15 years ago

    We use spray paint to 'code' the prices onto the plant pots, blue paint $10, red paint $8, yellow paint $6 and so on. We only use plastic pots, the paint sticks just fine and everyone gets a slip of paper when they come to the sale that tells them what the color codes mean.

    Then before they go to the checkout stand a helper checks the pot colors and prepares a tally sheet for the cashier that looks like this:
    2 x $10 = $20
    4 x $6 = $24
    3 x 8 = $24
    Total= $68
    So all the cashier has to do is ring up the total and take the money. It's an excellent system, people get through checkout quickly and everyone goes home happy.

    Cheryl

  • minirose1
    15 years ago

    We have everyone label their own plants before bringing them in. We are planning to go with the different colors on the pricing. An adjoining county started doing that with theirs and it worked for them really well. We are a small group but do have a good sized sale and we have quite a few MG's working and keeping an eye on things, which helps a lot. I used to have a small greenhouse business and had to watch all the little old ladies (am one myself), as they would move plant tags around. Not sure why, but think some of them would forget where it came from, so would just stick it anywhere. I learned early on the keep an eye out so I could put them back where they belonged.

  • joeboldt
    15 years ago

    We use tags that can be printed using a laser printer. They come from a company called rippedsheets.com (see link below)

    They are not as sturdy as some you get from nurseries, but they are pretty inexpensive. We looked into getting a dedicated plant label printer, but they started out at $2,000.

    I'm a software guy, so I created a web based system for MG's to order the tags. I then printed them. If your organization doesn't have a computer guru, you can also generate a Word document and print from that.

    Here is a link that might be useful: Rippedsheets.com plant tags

  • blueheron
    15 years ago

    We use a similar system as Cheryl does and it works very well. We paint popsicle sticks in various colors to indicate the prices.

    One of the MG's volunteers to paint the sticks for us. Then we keep them from year to year if still usable

    Blueheron

  • little_dani
    15 years ago

    We print out a sheet with info about the plant, and copied as many times as it will fit on the page. Cut them apart, mark the price, and staple them to the plant. We have been doing this for about 5 years, and it works pretty good. If a plant arrives at the cashiers with no tag, it is not a problem to find out the price.

    Janie

  • blueheron
    15 years ago

    Update to the above post:

    We now buy the colored plastic sticks. It's a lot easier than painting umpteen popsicle sticks! lol

  • minmac418
    15 years ago

    We are using a plant pick - like you would receive in an arranagement from a florist. I made 2x3 inch template listing Latin name, common name & care requirements. I will copy these onto cardstock using a copier -not a printer. Each member will receive 6 blank plant cards to fill out with plant information and bring with plant donation. We will put a colored dot (each color is a different price) on the card. Put the card onto the pick and place it in the pot. I am able to label 500 plants for under $20.00.
    We price our plants primarily by size of pot-3 prices - with special pricing for unique or special plants.

  • crocosmia_mn
    15 years ago

    Our colored popsicle sticks look like they were soaked in food coloring or maybe dye instead of being painted individually. They are re-used.

  • Peggy Marchesani
    9 years ago

    Our garden club uses colored plastic knives stuck into each pot. There is a color chart hung on the wall above each area of plants - just a poster board with knives glued to it and the price for that color knife. We have not heard of any swapping of prices going on, but our prices are so cheap, anyway, that it would be unlikely. At check-out a helper pulls the knives and notes on a little buck-slip how many of each color, and then the cashier tallies the total, while the knives go back for wiping with antibacterial wipes and sorting/saving for next year. Pretty easy and efficient. For plant identification, each member gets as many small labels as they need to fill out before bringing their plants, or they can do it when they come.