"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 3/8/04 18:52, in article
,
"Kate Morgan" wrote:


A month or two ago urg had a discussion on labelling plants
in a
durable way. Someone suggested using a pyrographic pen.

I acquired one and have used it to make labels on pieces of
hardwood, about 1/2 inch wide and 8 inch long. The tool was easy
to
use, provided the name was sketched out on the wood with a pencil
before burning it in. I am very pleased with the result. It
remains
to be seen how they get through the winter.

Franz
That is good, I do intend to try one, as you say it will be
interesting
to see how they go thro the winter, I would imagine that they look
rather nice ?


We visited someone's garden yesterday and he buys strips of lead,
cuts them
to size and has a small engraving tool to write on them. That way,
they
last indefinitely.

All the stock plants in Will Ingwersen's alpine nursery used to be
labelled like that. The trouble is that size for size, lead is *very*
much more expensive than wood.. Add to that the problem of how to fix
it to identify a herbaceous plant.

Franz