I remember seeing on here that someone used to take and cut strips out of the.mini or vertical blind and use this for their irises. Anyone familiar with this method or has tried it. If so, how did it work?

I used it them until recently. I stopped because The deer just started knocking them out of my Iris rows. Loved them! Use the old metal ones and use oil paint markers. You can get them at the craft store just make sure you check that they are oil based paint. It lasts forever.

Because it is what I have on hand, I use vinyl and a #2 pencil. So far, only a handful have faded to illegibility. Paint pen would be better, though, I think.

I have some high quilty shades from a work site demo that are rather thick and marker hasnt worn yet. I have shades that are cheap and are brittle from weather. I just bought 5 ft long 1inch wide thick wood though for that old farmers marker look.

I have a friend that grows several acres of irises in western AR and she hammers small sized PVC pipe deep enough into the ground that nothing can break it or pull it out. Then she uses a paint pen to vertically write the info on. Not lovely but for so many it works without getting destroyed or fading.

The paint markers hold up for about 3 years, then they start to fade in the sun. I use the plastic blinds too, and write it above ground on both side, and at the bottom. Below ground, and the side out of the sun doesn't fade.

I use strips from window blinds too -- but only for temp markers for new plants. Started doing this last year -- my permanent markers are too expensive to make and throw away the marker plates for Irises that don't make it.

However -- I do make regular Brothers tape labels for the blinds strips. No chance of them fading.

My only complaint about the blinds strips is that they can bend very easily -- and once creased, do not want to stand up straight again. We have heavy clay soil here, so sometimes it can be hard to push a blinds strip into it, and that's how they get bent to begin with. But -- these are temporary markers anyway -- so no big deal.

Mary Ann, That's good to know about them getting creased. Didn't think about it. Luckly in the area I am in, don't have to worry much about heavy clay soil or clay in general. We have really sandy soil here.

I cut up orange and green one gallon pots and use them as markers. I step on them all the time and they bounce right back up. I get 18 labels per pot and I use a paint pen to write the names. You can easily remove the names from the tags with a little rubbing alcohol on a rag.

(Planted in 2013 and the tag hasn't faded)
(I don't currently have a photo a photo of an older orange tag, but this one was tagged in Summer)