Hi Beckygardener . Thanks for the suggestion .....however over the 10 years of growing daylilies and seedlings I have tried many many things to try to keep track of my seedlings once they are planted out . i have tried the plastic knives but I run into the same problem with freeze/thaw cycles . The knives get heaved out of the ground ......then my puppies think these are toys and end up chewing them (this in itself can cause problems for the puppies) or they end up , taking them away from the gardens to play with them etc.

I seriously have found nothing has worked so far .... For my named daylilies I use tags made from recycled pop can metal with metal coat hanger wire that I sink into the ground about 12 inches . The labels are made from tape from a Brother labeller meant to withstand the UV rays of the sun . This works well as the wire is too far down to get heaved out of the ground but sometimes the dogs chew these or steal them away from where they are supposed to be. However when I plant a thousand seeds out it is just too expensive to make tags for the seedlings this way .

Spunky1

I am going to try your pvc pipe idea . It may be that there is enough weight in the pvc pipe that these wont get heaved out of the ground during the freeze/thaw cycles that we get here plus the sun's UV rays cant reach that far down into the tube to reach the id label for the cross to erase the names. Boy it sure would be great to have found something that actually works and sticks around till the plants bloom!!!!!!!!!!

I cut the pipe 24" long, you can put them in the ground as deep as you want. I would also get something more permanent to write with.

As I plant the seeds right in to the ground, I label every cross not knowing whether they will germinate.Living in zone 5b , winter time can sometimes be a help(lots of free insulation-snow) or no snow and freezing and thawing cycles. I have come up with a new labeling scheme. Each collection year plus a code no. recorded on both paper and computer document. I trim off most of the marker flags, print a label from my BROTHER LABEL MAKER and attach to the flag.I press the wires down deep in the ground. They stay with the seeds-seedlings-selected seedlings till I decide to register or compost.The labels never fade and yes I have no pets or young children to move them on me.