Permanent Plant Markers?

[Petee]

Does anyone have a good suggestion for making PERMANENT plant markers that will not fade out over the winter?  We've been doing the venetian blinds with a heavy permanent marker but it's still a total blank in the spring.  Then till it blooms again and is identified we have no idea what's what.

 

 

[Bon]

what about the wide popcicle sticks ... write on it then cover the part you wrote on with clear contact paper.

[Petee]

We've tried several ideas with popsicle sticks but the porous nature of wood allows moisture to seep in from all sides and then they rot.  

[Gilb3314]

A sharpie or maybe one of those laundry marker pens, that shouldn't matter if it gets wet. Hope you can use the blind that you just got from me. A good idea to use those, you can get lots from one miniblind!

[Petee]

We use the permanent Sharpies but over the winter the writing disappears.  Laundry marker can be something we will try.  I think I'm going to experiment with as many different kinds and we haven't tried yet.  There has to be something affordable.

 

Yep, the blinds are waiting for the shredder....me!  I cut up over 1000 of them every year so I keep a mountain of blanks ready for trimming so we always need more.  Thank you for the supplies and the Black Eyed Susans!  

[Staci]

I made my own out of aluminum tags and cut up old metal hangers. I cut the hook off metal hangers and threw it away. Then I cut the rest of the hanger into 3 pieces. I bent a loop at the end of each piece and used it to hang the aluminum tags. The tags can be engraved, so it will never wear off. The only problem I have had with them, is accidently pulling them out while raking up leaves in fall and spring.

                                               xx

                                             x    x

                                                 x---cut here

                                                 x  

                           cut here--- x      x---cut here

                                        x                x

                                  x                            x

                              x                                     x

                         xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

                             ^ cut here                     ^ cut here

 

Hope you can understand the picture. After I cut the hanger with tin snips, I used pliers to make a curly loop at one end of the metal hanger piece to hang the aluminum tag.

                                            xxx

                                          xx   xx

                                               xx

                                              xx

                                              xx

                                              xx

                                              xx

 

Below is a pic of the tags. I think you can get them from some sights for around $10.00 for 100 tags.

[Shmoopie11]

Have you tried Sharpie Industrial Strength?  They are more durable than regular permanent markers.

 

A friend of mine uses a numbering system.  She has all the plants listed by number in her computer.  She uses a stencil and spray paints numbers on some sort of plastic garden markers.  

[Stitches]

We've been doing the venetian blinds with a heavy permanent marker but it's still a total blank in the spring.

 

What if you painted over the permanent marker with spray on varnish or maybe a clear nail polish.

 

 

[Harvey Mungaknuts]

Have you tried using those paints for painting on clothing or patio paints?