I go old school and have index cards, sorted by Latin names and have from whom I got the plant and date purchased. On these I jot down dates watered, fertilized, any insecticides I've used, when they've been repotted, and whatever other info I feel like.

When a plant kicks the bucket, I throw out its card, otherwise I'd end up with a huge card file :-)

Like lazydog, I too go old school. I keep essentially the same records and track the same information, but I do it in a loose leaf notebook. That way, I can more easily keep track of my Sans, my Gasterias, my Aloes etc.

I keep a master list of all plants on my computer, generating complete info on the plant, its correct name, where I bought it, price, condition it was in, what I repotted it into, info on roots, use of insecticide if needed etc. I print each page to go into the notebook. I tend to do my plant care by group. All my Sans are potted in plastic pots and in mixes of C/S soil and either perlite or pumice. They are watered infrequently and usually within a few days of each other. All my Haws are in clay pots and in some form of gritty mix, so they are attended to more frequently. When a plant dies, I just remove that sheet of paper from the notebook (and its corresponding page on my computer) so I'm only tracking what I have managed to keep alive.

Strong proponent of Excel. I keep databases of about everything from plants indoor and outdoor, auto milage, daily blood pressure, coin collections, library books and tapes and CDs, etc.

Plant data is Scientific name, acquisition date, source, and notes on flowering etc. for indoor plants. Outside plants also have location data referencing yard maps.

Gabby - I'm using tiny labels plastic 1cm wide 5 cm long which I insert nearly totally in mix so only tip shows. Writing with extra-fine tip Sharpie. Can easily check if needed, but not obtrusive.

I had a problem with the plastic tabs snapping

Excel and Google Sheets! I have too many plants now. They are reasonably accurate/up to date.

All my sharpie plastic labels faded even when tucked in. Been procrastinating to write them in pencil for a whole year now.

We have a label maker I use to print out labels, which I then stick to plastic stakes. Works really well and hopefully won't fade like marker. And it's easier to read than my writing :-)

I use Evernote on my phone, no computer. Can have Stacks, Notebooks and Notes. Eg I have one Stack for Images, in that I have a Genera Notebook and Notes for each Species. Do similar for other info. Works well for me :-)

I am not much of a note taker any more. I used to have a huge file on my computer with all the plants in my garden, all I had done and was planning to do, etc. etc. Very detailed indeed. Both the file and the garden are still there, but only the garden is taken care of ;-).

For my succulents I basically have a list of names in the Notes app on my phone. It is divided into a few broad groups, and gives name, origin and date of acquisition, occasionally a short description, sometimes cultural notes. At the very end I have the “Grave Yard”. If I don’t have a plant any more, I cut and past the information there. I don’t use labels, I can still manage without. That’s why I occasionally need a short description in the notes.

While working at a industrial Coke & Iron Mill, I used EXCEL spreadsheets all the time for scheduling, store room files, parts lists on all equipment, and more. So when retired, I still use EXCEL for every thing imaginable like Geoforce and Gabby and use a label maker on plastic stakes like Windy. Plus EXCEL has spell checker which sometimes it still doesn't know what I'm trying to spell. I might have over 100 sheets and each sheet seems to go to infinity.

My trading list is 10 pages long and still going. Find feature is best wall to like all pages.

There is no other program I have ever found close. I have the 2007 ver. and there are so many tricks and tips to configure it any way possible and with inserting pictures as well.

The easiest way I found to share a spreadsheet who doesn't have the program is to photo it off my monitor and send as a picture.

To prevent inked markings from bleaching in the sun use an agricultural marker. I buy mine from A.M. Leonard.

Marker pen

Have some labels in garden in full sun for over 25 years and they are still legible.

I use an app called sortly, it let's me keep track of name, pic, money spent on total collection, etc. It does cost about 5 bucks a month, but I use it to keep track of multiple collections so worth it for me.

I use Evernote as well. It will even do a text search in pictures. So I take pics of every new purchase with the tag and upload those to Evernote.

For tags, I use an aluminum tape label maker. It even puts a little hole in the end to hang the tag from.

Don't think I want to keep track of money spent on plants over the years :-(

Because I keep everything on EXCEL, when robbed, I knew every CD, DVD, every train set and train cars that was stolen. Been doing this for over 30 years, so of course every plant, plant nursery trips, gifts given to me and given out and when and why plants die. Even my health, every shot, Dr. appointments, every doctor ever visited and why. and so on. I know my memory is fading so I depend on this to keep organized. It became a nice habit to do.

I even have daily logs from work of what I did, who did it and why. It came in handy so many times when a dispute came up.

All my hobbies are kept and when I see too much money being spent, that's when i put the brakes and stop. Stopped collecting toy trains due to the super high cost of buying stuff.

I just take photos with labels and then continuously update with more photos which are sorted into folders according to the Latin binomial names, nested into genus folders. I really can't be arsed to use spreadsheets. I have folders of ongoing experiments, also documented with photos. Then if they die, the folders get moved into my Dead folder, photo-history and all. That's easily terabytes of raw image data but it's easier to visually track how a specific plant has done over the years.

As for keeping track of spending, I'm with SLD there and we're both blissfully rowing in De Nile.

I know exactly what that's like, Stush. I had to stop collecting block planes at some point, realizing that after the third one, the rest were no longer paying for themselves and I could've bought a planer with the money to make my job easier.

I hope all these spreadsheets are being backed up in the cloud. And me either, I have no interest in knowing how much I spent.

You keep evidence of how much you have spent on plants? That's just asking for trouble.

Know your history prevents you from repeating the past.

Pagan, I have more pictures imported into my spreadsheets than picture folders. Much easier to track and take notes.

Bob, I don't trust something I don't know (Cloud). But I do back up every thing some 3 times on sim cards. About once every 4 months.

Geoforce,

checked your link for ag marker pen. Price sounds good too. Asked for cost to send 2 to me. Will be interesting. If too much I might ask a good nursery I know if they're interested then buy from them. Can only ask lol.

My main spreadsheet is backed up nightly to my server. My other sheets are stored online with a local backup. Dead plants are put in red text and in a group of my main spreadsheet. I have just 10 listed there up to 2016 but I know I have killed a lot more than that over the past few years!

It's fun cruising down De Nile!! I only keep track of the cost for my imported plants and not in a centralized location. I guess knowing exactly how much I spent on plants makes me feel a bit guilty when I get a new one...

Pencil doesn't fade like markers and is super cheap. Now I'm inspired to get organized. When I buy a new succulent, I photograph the plant and the label, but they're all jumbled up on my hard drive.

It takes time to learn all the in's and out's. Nice if some one can show you.

Google Drive is the original cloud. Its my cloud.

I'm old school and afraid of the information age. Afraid of sending away too much information and it being used against me. So I figured out to take a picture of the screen and sending that picture. The phone camera is so good that it turns out pretty good and takes very little memory. Can't send a spreadsheet due to limits of email.