We had a few short walks around several large show gardens in the UK and this is what we found….
Plastic labels have an unfortunate habit of degrading in the sun and breaking. The accession number on one can’t be read any more. I think the other is a polygonum!
These labels are nailed to the tree with a spring to provide extra growing space. Unfortunately the plastic label has provided a favoured teeth sharpening block for the local squirrels! The last label isn’t very informative anymore.
These are the four styles of label we found: ground labels on a stand, nailed to tree labels using a spring, tag labels (with writing that fades) and labels on wire loops.
On the face of it labels nailed to a tree with a spring to provide extra growing space sounds great, but it is difficult to back the nail out as the tree grows and over about 10 years see what happens!
More bad things that can happen to a label: those squirrels really do like chewing plastic! Stick on labels that peel (see the bubbles starting to form) and they also fade (the accession number still looks mostly white but the main label is nearly gone), and finally a thin aluminium plant stem which had been nearly destroyed after being hit by something – probably a strimmer.
Plant label gnawed 
Plant label faded and bubbling 
Label stem destroyed
The moral of this blog post is that ideally you don’t want to have to label a plant twice (or in the case below is that thrice?)
