I'm George. I run Cactus Shack Studio out of Phoenix, Arizona, and I engrave every marker, tag and tumbler that leaves here myself.

Most plant labels fail the same way. The nursery tag fades in a season, pencil on a plastic stake washes off in the first monsoon, and two years later you're standing in front of something you planted and can't name it. I make markers that don't do that — acrylic and aluminum, engraved rather than printed, carrying the common name, the botanical name, and the rootstock or planting date if you want them.

I work with gardeners, plant collectors, native plant growers, and the people looking after botanical collections and restoration sites. Some orders are one stake for a tree somebody planted for a person they miss. Some are two hundred tags for a land trust. Both get the same attention.

If you're working out what belongs on a marker, my plant care guides go through what's actually worth recording — for fruit trees, roses, natives, palms and collector specimens.