Fall Potted Bulb Labelling Project

David Maxwell opbungalow@gmail.com
Tue, 21 Oct 2008 09:25:59 PDT
Hi All,

well, with many potted bulbs (Hippeastrum) going dormant...and many more
becoming available to buy from commercial nurseries, it's always a challenge
to have a cheap, easy, convenient and LASTING method of labelling potted
bulbs to keep track of which bulb is which.

Especially since more often than not the bulbs don't come with permanent
labelling stakes.

I think most of us at one time or another have deluded outselves that 'Oh,
I'll remember what bulb that is...in half a year from now.'

Or, in the case of home-crosses, there's doezens of baby bulbs to either
keep batched together...or label.

So I wanted to share with the group a method I've been using, which is to
use a water-based porcelain glaze on commercially manufactured glazed (4" or
6" bathroom) tiles.

There are 2 French companies...Pebeo and Lefranc&Bourgeois...that
manufacture the glaze, which comes in many colors, and is commonly available
at crafts stores.  It costs around $3.00 bucks a 1.5 oz. bottle, and you
paint it on and "fire" it in your oven for 30 minutes.  I use my
toaster-over.

White glazed bathroom tiles are available to buy individually at places like
Home Depot...or scrap overages are easy enough to find...and they can easily
be cut using a hand tile.

Home Depot sells a 12" hand tile cutter by HomePro for about $15.00 bucks
that's easy to use...just score & snap.

I usually cut tile pieces that are 3/4" in. by 3" in., so a 6" in. tile
yields 16 pieces.

I've got 16 H.'Susan' x 'Picotee' babies starting to go dormant from a cross
I made 2 years ago...so I just labelled the whole batch with one 6" tile.

And another thing about tile pieces is that they don't (easily) wash or blow
away.

Anyway, that was my home crafts project du jour that I thought I'd share.

-d.


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