To label a plant or not, that is the question...
Actually I've asked and explored that question before. And now I'm revisiting the topic again, this time on a different tangent.
My memory on plant names isn't as good as is once was, especially with an ever increasing amount of plants we're collecting as well as increasing mental demands from work. On several occasions I've found myself very grateful of plant labels that are still intact when the need to know the ID is there, memory in limbo and the label was there to the rescue.
But the idea of putting labels on everything still puts me off.
Plus the other problem of finding labels that are not obstructive to the eye and at the same time long lasting and won't fade away in time and exposed to the elements.
Then I had an idea, why not use a technology on hand already to do the labelling and cataloguing for me? The digital camera!
So that's what I've been doing recently, take photos of plants with their original label then discard those without any extra information on them. The images are then stored on separate folder and are also stored online so I can access the folders easily when away from home.
This way I can go back at the photos to find the exact names and ID's and I won't have to worry about labels fading away or being a distraction when looking at a plant.
The minor disadvantage though is that you won't have instant access to the name of a plant you've forgotten about, you'll have to refer to the ID album. And if you change it's planting position or it's pot/container you may have to take a photo of it again with a label.
It's not an original idea but it's something that's happy with. Now why did I not think of this before??
Mark :-)