The little dog is adorable! I have tried a lot of labels and labeling materials over the years and now prefer the Stainless Steel plant markers by Wren. I like to purchase these markers in lots of 50 online through a company called Bosmere for the best price. I used to mark the plant name with special pens for this purpose and the ink only lasted about 3 to 5 years. So about 8 years ago I converted to the Brother p-touch TZe label tape to identify all my plants. This tape is laminated for outdoor use and to prevent fading from UV rays. It is also water resistant. The labels still look as good as the day I put them on. The stainless steel markers are great because they can be cleaned and relabeled if a plant leaves the garden.

I think it's good to put some time into searching out the perfect plant label for you. We all like different things and if your collection is large, it turns into a big deal. I've had a few false starts, and I definitely have some tags in my collection that I HATE with a passion, and need to replace. And this year I'm finally going to! I'm in the process of stamping out tin ones and here are my reactions so far: They're great to stick in a pot and have a permanent long-term label that you never have to worry about fading or getting lost. And they stand apart from other plant labels. But they're not the best for quickly reading the plant's ID. And they're time-consuming as all heck. For readability, my FAVORITE tags (I'll have to go 100% this route eventually) are an idea I stole from Joni when she sent me one of her "mother" plants. She used one of those really heavy duty T-tags and put it inside the pot, so you could read the name through the transparent pot. Either she actually found some without stakes, or she'd cut the stake off super neatly. In those I create, I usually bend the stake under the dirt - then it stays neatly wedged in place, during re-pots. I used a "Garden Marker" pen and they have never faded and are always super easy to read. They're unobtrusive, in the same spot on every plant, and out of the way. I did poke around and there are enough applications that I think you'll be able to find what you're looking for. I haven't seen a grower use what you describe, although I did receive cuttings once with printed, slightly laminated (probably 'water resistant' paper) labels that had just been staple looped onto the plant. Those have really held up over time, surprisingly, are really easy to read, and I like them a lot. I don't think they're what he uses on his own collection, though. You will just have to look in more of an industrial setting - I'd be inclined to think you'd actually find it in the food industry, since those labels have to withstand harder conditions.

Duh. I stand corrected. Me foolish, not them. I meant to say black on white. I'd be surprised if the 9/64 is the security type because it is not even laminated. Too small maybe for that? I have see the security kind, also very new, in a different section with a different code format. Can't find out much about it. Not really sure what it does when it gets "tampered with". Be cool if it beeped or smoked or threw red dye, but I doubt it does much other than "show" it has been messed with.

I would love to have them in a drawer but not sure how. I've seen the slanted dividers for displaying them in drawers, but I know that not all of the bottles shapes would fit that design. I've thought about changing out all the bottles to a standard size and using a label maker to mark the tops so that I can put them all standing upright in a drawer - just not sure if that's worth the effort. That is pretty much what I did, and it was definately worth the effort. I designed some drawers that were high enough for the bottles I wanted to store, including some half pint canning jars that I use for bay leaves and that sort of thing. Here's a thread started in 2008 about storing large collections of spices. Lots of good ideas. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg02124116986.html Cj