When it comes to labelling and pens that are still legible, I never found a pen that didn't fade. At the Botanical Gardens the only reliable identification method involved inscribing names into soft metal tags or etching them onto hard ones. So after many years of other methods failing I finally began to improvise my own for metal tag system for lily breeding. Now I save those soft metal tops off coffee tins and the like - even the foil from spreads and dips - and scrawl away with any old ballpoint pen I like. It doesn't matter as long as it makes an impression:
I just stopped dating crosses this year. The date goes in my record book anyway, and as I also use these tags as planting labels when the seeds go in, I'd rather add the planting date when the time comes.
I can also reuse tags from failed crosses - just rub the impression flat and start again. It doesn't disappear entirely but the intended inscription is much deeper so I don't get
too confused...
