Five lines of engraved text on a tag big enough to read from standing height. This is the marker I reach for when a plant is worth recording properly — a grafted fruit tree, a named Japanese maple, a rose cultivar, a bed in a botanical collection.
Most markers give you room for a name. Five lines give you room for the name, the botanical name, and the three details you will actually want in ten years: the rootstock, the year it went in the ground, where the scion came from.
Fill in what you need and leave the rest blank. One line for a herb bed, five for a grafted tree. The type stays the same size either way, and there's no layout to pick.
Which style should you pick?
This is the question worth answering before anything else, because it's the only real decision on this page.
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With Bend — the tag face is bent backward from the stake so it sits closer to horizontal, forming a T. You read it looking straight down from standing height instead of edge-on. This is what most people want for anything planted in the ground.
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No Bend — the tag face stays flat in line with the stake, so you read it head-on. Better for a raised bed, a pot at waist height, a nursery bench, or a row you walk alongside and view from the side.
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12in Stake with Bend — the same backward-bent tag on a longer stake. Better in deep mulch, tall groundcover, or loose soil where a shorter stake works its way loose.
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9-Packs — the same tag in either style, nine at a time, for labeling a whole orchard row, bed, or collection in one go.
If you're not sure, choose the bend. Standing over a flat tag, you're looking at its edge.
What to put on the lines
A workable default is the name, then the botanical name, then whatever would otherwise be lost. Four examples from real orders:
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Grafted apple — Honeycrisp / Malus domestica / M7 semi-dwarf / Grafted March 2024 / Scion from Mueller orchard
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Rose — Above and Beyond / Rosa 'Above and Beyond' / Kordes climber / Own-root, planted 2023
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Japanese maple — Bloodgood / Acer palmatum / Mendocino Maples / Acquired 2021
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Native planting — Desert Willow / Chilopsis linearis
Line 1 prints largest. The four lines below it are all the same size as each other. Shorter entries print larger, and the counter under each field shows how much room is left — nothing gets cut off, the type just steps down a little to fit.
Which details are worth making permanent depends on what you're growing:
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Fruit trees: variety, botanical name, then rootstock and planted year. On a grafted tree the rootstock determines mature size, lifespan, and whether the stake is permanent — and it's printed on a nursery tag that will be illegible within a season.
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Roses: cultivar, botanical name, then breeder or own-root versus grafted. That last one decides how deep the plant should have been set, and it's the first thing forgotten.
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Japanese maples and collector specimens: cultivar, botanical name, then source nursery and acquisition year. Provenance is most of the value.
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Native plantings: common name, botanical name, then the year or the seed source. Regional natives get sold under overlapping common names, so the botanical name is the one that settles arguments.
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Memorial and dedication plantings: the plant on the first lines, the person on the last.
My plant care guides go through this genus by genus — which details actually matter a decade out, for fruit trees, roses, natives, palms and collector specimens.
Why engraved instead of printed
There is no ink on these. The white lettering is cut into two-tone outdoor acrylic, so the text is part of the material. Nothing fades in full sun and nothing lifts after a wet season. The engraving is also black-light reactive, which is a small thing until you're walking a collection at dusk or setting up a nursery display.
Specs
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Overall length: 11.75" (12" stake option runs longer)
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Tag face: 4" x 2.25" (±5% tolerance from my acrylic supplier)
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Material: Two-tone outdoor acrylic, matte black engraving to white
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Text: Up to 5 customizable lines
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One piece: Tag and stake are cut from a single sheet — nothing to separate or work loose
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Point: Tapered tip for pushing into soil without a pilot hole in most ground
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UV stable and weatherproof — full sun, rain, frost
Made to order in my Phoenix studio — ships in 5 business days. Order several and they ship together. Need it by a specific date? Message me before ordering and I'll confirm.
Ordering for a nursery, orchard, community garden or botanical garden?
I work with bulk orders regularly, including multi-hundred-tag runs for botanical collections, land trusts and native plant societies. Send me your list and quantity and I'll confirm format and turnaround.
If you're working out what belongs on the tag, message me and describe the plant. I answer my own messages, and I'd rather get the wording right before it goes on the laser than after.
Care and installation
Soap and water is all these ever need — skip glass cleaner and rubbing alcohol, which can craze acrylic. If your ground is hard enough that the stake will not press in, water the spot the evening before and open a pilot hole first. Read the care and installation guide.
