What a good idea Karyn. I have one container that I forgot to label and two that the ink from the sharpie washed off. I use plastic knives to mark my containers....only 3 for me with no ID. I hope you post pictures of your mystery garden later. In my opinion no growing garden is an eyesore. I really don't have anyplace to plant unknowns so I will have to wait until I can ID them.
Bonny

Karyn,

You are probably going to grow the most beautiful garden ever! It's amazing how mistakes and unknowns placed randomly together create amazing results. I'm a mosaicer so I should know. :O) Besides, Ma Nature relies on the wind, rain, birds, etc. to plant her gardens without thought of height, colour and such things and they are most wondrous, right?

In terms of labels, there are two tried and true methods I've discovered in the last few years of winter sowing. One is using the foil/plumber's tape and marking with a pencil. The name gets indented into the foil so you never lose it.

Another is the Garden Marker available at Lee Valley. It is UV resistant. As an experiment this year, I tried using the Sharpie on a few containers, then used the LV marker on the rest. Three weeks ago the Sharpie markers had already faded to the point I could barely see the Buddleia Opera written on the pop bottles, but the LV marker was as clear on the other containers and pop bottles as the day the names were written.

Trudi suggests writing the names on a piece of duct tape attached to the bottom of the container. That works too, but I like to see the name on the top/side of my containers as I 'inspect' them.

I will have a whole garden of these unknown plants.
I thought "gee I'll remember what I put in these containers." Well wouldn't ya know I completely forgot.

I admire all those that keep good records.

I love the look of a random garden. It means that the person is not so stiff and hung up on being perfect. Just my kind of friend.
Love pics of any garden.. Cherry

Oh and plants can be moved they may not like it at first but they finally settle in.

Karyn - My first year, about the same thing happened to me - more or less - I think my first wintersowing garden looked the best - Honestly, I had plants crowded in all available spaces with hardly any idea of height, etc. and comparing pictures thereafter, it was my best garden.

Have fun - take pictures, you need to have pictures of your first wintersowing garden.

Carrie

Foil tape! It works.

I have a mix of plant heights in my garden, since I view it from all sides. I like the look! I just hope you won't get any colors that clash too much.

Another fade-proof label: pencil on window-blind. You can also reuse them by erasing!

This year, I inserted a plastic knife INSIDE the container, so that when I planted out, I knew what it was, and had the marker ready to go into the garden.
Info on the marker was merely the plant, and height, since I know that's all I'll be concerned about when it comes to plunking & running! I only used a sharpie for now, but found out they faded over the winter IN the bed of Daylilies, so will have to use grease pencil later. They'll last til I get around to it, though.

I think its fun to run around and plant at random and then be surpirsed by the unknowns when they bloom and you can best identify them. I have this experience alot because I travel so much and gather seeds from everywhere I go from plants that appeal to me on the road. This year I have five unkowns from Vermont and one unknown from Montana that I am anxious to see bloom. If I find I have miss located them that's not really a problem. I just dig them and move them if they are perennials and if they are annuals I just gather the seeds and move them the folowing year by seeding them in a more sensible place. I use to be pretty anal about color and height and coordination and texture and spacing and blah blah blah. Now I'm a messy gardener and plant wherever the heck I feel like it. Instead of having 30-40 types of plants in well coordinated, picture pefect gardens, I now have 2 acres of well over 300 varieties of flowering plants planted cottage garden style for splash of color and fun eye appeal in almost any direction I look in my yard at all times in the growing season!

The duct tape with Sharpie writing on the bottom of the jugs worked well for me. What I also did was to label each jug with a number. For example, #35 this year was Chamomile. So, on the duct tape on the bottom goes the number and the name. Then I write the number 35 in about 4 different places on the jug. A few numbers faded, but there were always a couple readable ones. I kept the list of which number went to which plant near the deck door, so I could refer to it quickly if I didn't feel like picking up the jugs. No unidentified jugs yet - although, of course, it is only my first year and I only had 80 containers!

I like the idea of the plastic knife marker *in* the jug so it's ready to go come planting-out time. Next year...

Nightingale :o)

The first year, I had too many "surprise" containers. I have used the foil tape on mini-blind labels for the last 3 years, no surprises! I hate stopping to make labels and the foil labels can be reused over and over. A quick wipe in the fall with a damp rag and filed in ABC order does the trick. Since I plant favorites each year, I can just pull out the label and I'm done. I do make a few new labels each year as I try new seeds, but that's not as bad as making 400 labels each year.

The best part is, people always put old mini blinds in the trash....just for you to grab and re-use.

{{gwi:50268}}

Just remember to pull your good foil label and make a quick label on another piece of mini blind with marker when you give away plants.

Follow up with pictures, the people on the wintersowing forum are great with helping me to identify my mystery plants all the time. This year I only have ONE mystery container. Yea me!

mini blinds and sharpies has been ok so far. Even that takes so much time.

I just finished some transplanting and I found the one tray again that has markers that say cilantro. But, they just look like tomato plants to me but I'm not sure which variety. That's what I have the most of, only had one cilantro cell and I can't find that one.

I think I am off my marker.

Yes, pencil on mini blinds works the best for me also. I love surprise WS seeds. My Daughter went to Ellis Island last fall, and she brought me four tissues full of seeds. They have all germinated by WS'ing. One is a mystery, one I think was chaff, and the other two are gayfeather, and anise hysopp I think. I can't wait for all the other seed snatches to bloom. She brought be some from Door County Wisconsin also. Some Moms get T-shirts from trips, but I always ask for seeds. I put the mystery seeds here and there in the garden.
You can always move them next year if perennial, or save the seeds from annuals and put them where you want then next year. WS'ing and seed snatching are my favorite hobbies. Oh, I knit also.
Have fun. Judy

My fave way of planting out is to just take a flat, plant it, get the next flat and plant that, etc etc. I don't look at the label except fo photography of the seedlings. The most lovely gardens can be grown from simple appreciation of what's enfolding in front of your eyes. You WILL be enthralled as your unknown seedlings grow and bloom and you will learn more about these mystery plants than any other plants in the garden.

I experimented this year:

Sharpie on miniblind inside the container
Sharpie on top of container on outside
Foil tape on miniblind

Results:

Sharpie on miniblind inside the container:
Faded but legible

Sharpie on top of container on outside:
Faded but legible

Foil tape on miniblind:
Still as clear as when I marked them.

Here's what I did: wrapped the foil around one end of a 3" - 4" piece of miniblind, wrote the plant name on the foil tape, then punched a hole in the nonfoiled end of the miniblind and tied the label to the jug handle.

I have been wintersowing for 3 years and have had many mystery containers due to label tape falling off. Attaching the labels to the jug handles is working out very well.

But I wouldn't worry about the mystery jugs. Figuring out what the plant is after it's in the ground has always been fun.