"What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." William Shakespeare.

Actually names are very important, especially the names of plants.  And plants are really special, as they can have more than one name: the common name or nickname, and the scientific name, which is Latin, hard to pronounce, impossible to spell and usually written in italics.  (Don’t worry, I’m going to spare you the taxonomy lesson, but I promise I will get to it soon!)

It is however, really important to know the scientific name of a plant.  How can you covet a plant properly if you don’t even know its name?  Ironically, in all our visits to gardens over the years, we seldom found one that consistently had labels on the plants.  And, a little secret, if you happen to be doing a garden tour and want to know if that proud owner is actually a gardener, or has just paid someone to do it for them, ask the name of a plant. A true gardener will know what it is, because it was probably chosen with care.

Plants are usually labeled in nurseries and garden centres, and they can be mislabeled. (How easy is it for the tag to fall out of the pot and some well meaning person put it back … in the wrong pot!), and sometimes in the fall you can get a bargain on a plant that has lost its label. 

If you want to find really good examples of plant labeling, you will have to go to a public gardens, green house or arboretum.  They consistently label their plants and they often do it well. It’s a good thing they do, as they are the main source of our knowledge and inspiration.

Montreal Botanical Garden. This is a superb example of plant tagging. At the bottom we have a metal inventory tag. There are 2 numbers on the top. I think the first is an inventory number and the second the year of planting. It is followed by the scientific name of the plant. The tag is probably made from aluminum which is stamped. This tag will last forever! At the top we have the specimen label which has the common name (in English and French), followed by the scientific name and the native habitat.

Why don’t more people label their plants?  Let’s not get into a philosophical discussion on motivation here, but look, instead, at practicalities.  There aren’t a lot of alternatives on the market.  Here are a few choices.

Popsicle sticks and a Sharpie (or substitute any kind of cheap flat surface-wood, plastic, and marking implement)

Pros: Cheap. Practical. Easy to do.

Cons: Looks cheap. Wood rots. Writing can come off. Plastic gets brittle and breaks. Stick can get lost.

Conclusion:  Probably only good for short term use. Seedlings, annuals, or vegetables.

Scotts Lavender Farm. Cobourg. This is a "high-end" example of the popsicle stick. Very lovely. I'm not very artistic, but I might be inspired to give it a try!

This is a very, very cheap label. Just a bit of plastic marked with pencil. It's probably ok for the pot, but I think we need to replace this soon, before we lose it and can't identify the plant!

The label that came with the plant.

Pros:  Doesn’t cost anything. Doesn’t require any effort.

Cons: Takes up a lot of room. Not all plants come with nice labels.  The label then can’t be used to catalogue your plant.  You can’t add any information, like date of purchase.

Conclusion: An adequate solution, but not perfect.

This is a perfect example of sloppy labeling.  I have the label for the sempervivum in the pot above. But I don't know which plant it belongs to. Part of the problem is we bought many sempervivums over the years and they change so much depending on their age and the season, that we can't match the plant with the label now. That'll teach us.  The stone crop didn't make it through the first winter. But we still have the label!

Metal Window blinds.

Pros: Environmentally friendly if using recycled blinds. Can be written on or have labels stuck on.

Cons:  Space isn’t really very large and you have to get waterproof labels.

Conclusion:  For smaller plants it’s probably a very good solution, but they’d look lost under a tree.

This lovely little alpine is from Judy Wall's Nursery - Rock Wall Gardens in Perth, Ontario. She uses recycled blinds to label her plants.

Recycled aluminum pop cans. (Apparently you can cut them up and use a pointy stick to engrave on them!)

Pros: Cheap, environmentally friendly.

Cons:  Sucks if you don’t drink pop! But you can always raid a recycling bin. Not sure how practical they are as I’ve not tried it.

Conclusion: It may be worth a try. Heck, its recycling… if it doesn’t work you can’t really lose!

Purchased labels.

Pros:  Look professional. Last a long time. Come in lots of different sizes and materials, copper, aluminum, ceramic, etc.

Cons:  They can be expensive.

Conclusion:  Not a lot of selection out there.

Below are a  selection of lovely plant markers from Lee Valley Tools.

Large Aluminium markers with lots of room to write on. 

Plastic labels with copper or aluminum insets.



Copper tags. These are truly enviable, but copper's so valuable I'd be worried that someone might steal them for their scrap value



We have decided we are going to attempt to label our plants.  But you’ll have to stay tuned to see what we decided to do.