Based on my experience with growing daylilies for many years, the only labels that I have thus far found to be long term legible are the engraved ones done by AAA Quality Engravers.
http://www.aaaqualityengravers... The are unbeatable for long term legibility and looking good in the garden. I buy them with the "Simply Elegant" stakes.
That said, there are some problems that I have with these stakes... 1) I am lazy and so it is something of a pain to work up an order list and send it off... 2) Prices are based on how many you buy, the more the cheaper, so it's not great for onesie-twosie orders (and by the time you amass enough plants that need labels to put in a large order, see #1)... 3) once you finally work yourself up and send out the order, you have to wait for it to return (there may be delays if "everyone else" is ordering at the same time), and then you have to go and assemble the labels onto the parts that connect to the stakes, and then connect those to the stakes... and 4) people (or animals) can knock the label off of the stake; at best you have to find (and sometimes clean) the label and put it back on, but sometimes the connecting part has broken, so you have to go order another label. (Ditto if you can't find the missing label, which has happened here more than once; you have to go and order another label.)
My medium and long-term alternate to using the engraved labels are these Wren stainless steel labels - they are very tough and solid.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0078IF6TW/
Cost per, assuming 100 labels :
AAA Quality Engravers: 1.70 per label plus 1.35 per (shorter) "Simply Elegant" garden stake (I have found that I prefer the shorter stakes) =
3.05 per plant (but the engraving does not fade, and it looks good in the garden)
Wren (15.45/pack of 12):
1.29 + per plant, plus cost of printed out stick-on label (whatever your system) or paint or garden marker ink (but the labels can fade or potential come off, and the garden marker ink eventually fades too)
The Wren labels are obviously cheaper, extremely sturdy, and are good for quickly banging out labels (whether you write on them or P-Touch label them or whatever), but for my taste, shiny metallic labels aren't the most beautiful thing in the garden. I use them for longer-than-short-term, but after that, if I know that I am going to keep the plant, then I prefer to get a AAA engraved label.
