LolaTasmania said: The place looks much tidier and I think my memory of what is where will improve now that I don't have the labels as a crutch for my mental laziness.
Yes, I resorted to cheap discardable picnic plastic knives to stick next to anything that I grow but don't know exactly what it is. My main issue is the size of my various collections. Also, the ammount of newbie plants that I have recently brought into my garden. My large trees I don't need a tag. I simply know their name, their provenance even the year they were planted. They have become so familiar that I use them as landmark names when I discuss with others about where to search for something: i.e next to the Abies pinsapo or behind the Abies concolor. I guess that living in a Spanish speaking country we find the use of Latin names less of a challenge, so I use the botanical nomenclature for species. However once my plants are cultivated forms, my trouble starts. I know it is a Rosa, but which? Well again once they've become very familiar then I simply name and remember its agreed upon name. i.e: my various 'Papa Meilland' or 'Benjamin Britten'. Neither need an ID tag. My rose collection or dahlia/daylilly/TBiris /Louisiana iris/Primula/Campanula/Lewisia collections or wild Penstemon species are in the making.Each with more than 100s already and growing in cultivars. So newcomers are really unfamiliar. They are still almost something green inside a grow bag. I'm very good in remembering names once I become familiar. I don't think that it is about mental laziness though in me. I need to clearly visualize the plant in bloom in my memory and place it inside my mental map also. Of course, the paper written map helps a lot. Unfortunately, I would have to redo my map many times a season with all the plants being shuffled around. It ends up as a good intention but never actually accomplished. So in the end my tag filled up beds just are a proof of my own learning process. It just shows and reminds me how much I'm still missing. Not bad, because it keeps me mentally active. When I doubt, I stoop and read the tag. Noids really bother me if they belong to known cultivars. Otherwise they stand as Noid and I still enjoy the plants. At one point my gardens will have reached maturity and even my rock garden midgets will be identified in my mind. Then my paper map will possibly need a few additions/deletions each season. I also hope to have good photography attached to the maps so that the final design could be recreated by others or myself some day in the future.
Arturo
