I am interested in hearing what other places use for labeling their trees for identification purposes. We are currently using black/white anodized aluminum plaques on metal stakes. They are suppose to be weather resistant, but they are beginning to fade. Has anyone had any luck with other types of materials that can withstand the elements?
At UBC Botanical Garden we use both metal and plastic engraved signs and labels. Neither are really permanent, the plastic fades faster though. Unless you use etched or impressed metal, ceramic or stone I think they will all wear out. We find that labels need to be updated anyway, so replacing the labels every so many years is not so bad. This is my new job at the garden, by the way.
Years ago we went through a dwarf Conifer collection that had no identification at all. We used aluminum identification markers to mark the trees in two spots. After we did our work the arboretum decided to use name plaques, took off the id markers and not long someone came in and moved all of the plaques around. Had it not been for us making a site map a few people might have been "up against it". We have had good success with the aluminum markers on a tree. The ties may not always hold but if the printing is done deep enough and are legible, the names on the aluminum tags will stay a long while, up to and beyond 20 years for us. If you have to have a name plaque then be sure to have one to two metal markers on the tree just in case to allow for shenanigans. Jim
Try thick plastic tags, and 'write' on them with a soldering iron. Not very elegant, but very cheap, and durable. Example: http://www.pinetum.org/canon/label2.gif
The aluminum impressible tags are legible the longest of any tag I've used, but I replace the thin aluminum wire with strands of coated telephone wire. These are less likely to break off in wind.
The most durable I've seen was at Arboretum Wespelaar in Belgium, where they used some sort of flexible plastic/rubber that was computer engraved, very neat. We're looking for something more durable than our current system as well, we're currently using gro-straights with a tape labeller (or whatever they're called) It's much better than the old system (which was a combination of guesswork, engraved aluminum labels mounted on wood, and our memory) but will still need replacing over time, as the gro-straights will probably rust..... Adrian. R.
