A Complete Guide to DIY Plant Tags & Markers

Plants tags, labels, and markers are used for everything from indoor seed starting to keeping track of plants outdoors in our gardens. Whether you want something quick and easy, fade-proof, and long-lasting, or creative—or all of these things, this guide shares the best materials to use.

If you want to use botanical names on your tags, this has tips on how to write and understand botanical plant names.

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Make Your Own Plant Tags

The best plant tag is the one that does exactly what you want—and this will vary depending on what it’s used for.

There are basically two camps: practical tags and creative tags.

Indoor seed starting calls for cheap and easy tags—a fast way to jot down some details that will follow the plant as it grows.

Outdoors, if tracking long-term, we need plant tags or markers that will hold up to the elements. We don’t want anything that fades in the sun or washes away in harsh weather.

On the creative side, it’s all about the art—creative and unusual plant markers that bring charm to the garden.

Let’s look at the writing tools and materials gardeners like best depending on what the tag is used for.

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Contents

• Practical Plant Tags
  • Indoor Seedling Tags
  • Outdoor Plant Markers
• Creative Plant Tags
• Resources

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Practical Plant Tags

Practical plant tags should be fast, easy, and inexpensive. Nothing fussy, just super quick tags that retain the written information for the time needed.

These are tags for indoor seed starting, tracking potting plants, and long-term marking of outdoor plants.

Indoor Seedling Tags

Tag options include plastic plant tags, repurposed strips of (lead-free) window blind slats, and water-resistant wood tags.

The best writing tools are:

• Pencils: HB 2 pencils (name brand only) or Charcoal pencils.
• Ballpoint pens
• Marking pens: Paint Pens or Markers do not fade. Sharpie “Permanent” Pens do fade.
• Overhead projector pens: Lumocolor permanent pen 318.
• Wax Pencils: Wax pencil (also called “grease pencil” or “chinamarker”)

Whatever writing tool you choose, test it out to be sure you like how it works.

DIY Plant Tags For Indoor Seed Starting (Easy, Reliable) has detailed tips including how to clean the writing off tags for reuse.

Outdoor Plant Markers

There are all sorts of long-lasting outdoor plant tags and markers but, if you want to list more than the common name of a plant, you probably have to make your own.

One type of long-lasting outdoor markers are stainless steel plant markers (more expensive and long-lasting than zinc ones). These should last for generations.

For the plant information, use:

• Brother label maker with weatherproof tape labels, or
• Paint Pens | Oil-based marking pens will not fade in the sun or wash away, even if kept outdoors year-round.

Outdoor Plant Tags & Markers That Last A Lifetime (Really) has more information on using a label maker with metal plant markers.

If you need more information on long-lasting marking pens (also called “paint pens”), this explains which pens will not fade in the sun.

Creative Plant Tags

Creative tags are garden art and plant tags all in one.

There are countless ways to make them and, depending on the materials used, they may or may not be long-lasting.

See 25 Creative DIY Plant Markers & Tags for all sorts of fun ways to mark or label garden plants.

Resources

• The Best Fade-Proof Permanent Marking Pen for Plant Tags
• How to Remove Permanent Marker from Plastic Plant Tags
• How to Track Indoor Seedlings Without Plant Tags

~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛