Marking Family History With Markers for Roses

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Sturdy Markers for Roses Label a Lifetime of Memories

markers for rosesAre your roses part of your family history? Is there a bush that was once your grandmother’s that is now creating its generation of buds in your garden? Are there blooms that remind you of the day your child gave you that little bush that has grown so much over the years just like they have grown? We label our roses for different reasons. Sometimes we label to remember all of the elegant names of our roses. Other times it is to preserve their place in our family history. Markers for roses can become markers of time and memory—an album of life passed from one generation to another.

Perhaps you’ll soon be starting that family history by transplanting a rose bush from another family member’s garden to your garden or starting that legacy in your own backyard. How do you make sure that those bushes will survive for generations to come? Gardening Know How recommends some helpful tips to get your rose garden off to a good start:

  • Spring is the best time to plant roses, although fall is a suitable time, too.
  • Let their roots prosper in a spot that gets at least six hours of sunlight.
  • Start your roses off with some nutritious plant fertilizer each spring and keep them hydrated.
  • Make sure roses get at least an inch of water each week.
  • Water roses close to the ground to prevent moisture from sitting on the leaves which can cause leaf rot.
  • Mulch the ground around the roses to keep the ground moist, but not soaking.
  • Roses like haircuts. Prune them frequently to keep their legs from becoming too spindly.

Planting a part of your family history comes with a sense of responsibility. You’ll carefully choose a site, put the roses in, feed and nourish your plant and expect that they will live a long life. You imagine your ancestors snipping roses for the flower vases you’ll never see and smile with the thought that you will have given a good start to that life that has surpassed you.

You should expect that your markers for roses will last as long as your beloved roses. Stainless steel markers will not rust or decay and will weather the storms over the years. While adults may tip-toe through the tulips, there may be children who run through the roses. Sturdy posts on the markers for roses will stand up to the giggling bumps and kicks they endure.

Kincaid Plant Markers are used in the backyards of gardeners who love their rose bushes and in public gardens to educate visitors about the varieties of beautiful roses that bloom across our nation. At gardens like the Better Homes & Gardens experimental garden in Des Moines, Iowa, our markers educate current and future gardeners from anywhere in the world. Back home, we hope our markers can become a part of your family of roses, educating, entertaining and preserving family memories.

Sturdy Plant Markers for Perennials Stand up to the Elements Year After Year

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Plant Markers for Perennials Become Companions to Your Flowers

plant markers for perennialsIf you’ve invested your money in hardy perennials, then you want your plant markers for perennials to be long-lasting, too. Some people enjoy adding new plants to their yard each year, but others have put in their time, digging flower beds and getting their perennials all set in and labeled with plant markers. Now is the season to sit back and watch those perennials take root and fill in your flower beds.

There are so many wonderful perennials out there—which ones do you choose? Some of the top picks for the most drought-tolerant, hardy, long-lasting beautiful blooms are: Baptisia, Black-eyed Susan, Blanket flower, Coneflower, Daylily, Geraniums and Hibiscus. You’ll have your preference for color and style, but also check the plant’s hardiness. Does it need to be watered frequently or fertilized or can it thrive all summer long with occasional rain? Does it need to be pruned throughout the season or can it just grow like a wildflower?

Research your perennials. Just because you can enjoy them year after year doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to enjoy them week after week. Some perennials, like tulips, only bloom for a short period of time during one season. Others may bloom early in spring and re-bloom in summer or may have constant blooms over a few months. Find perennials which will give long-lasting color, tolerate poor soil and don’t need to be watered by anyone but Mother Nature. Perennials may need the occasional dead-heading and the annual cutting back after their growing season, but beyond that they should give you many more hours of enjoyment than hours of work.

Plant markers for perennials can be the finishing touch. Now that the perennials are in, they can be labeled with as much pride and beauty as if they were in a city’s botanical garden. Garden markers made from 100 percent stainless steel will be long lasting. They don’t rust or wear away with the harsh elements of all seasons. Posts of different heights can blend nicely among the tallest or shortest perennials for a nice up and down flow that compliments your plants, yet still have a uniformity in their stainless steel simplicity.

Choosing plant markers should be like choosing perennials. There are different varieties to choose from, but you expect them to be there year after year. Our sturdy long-lasting stainless steel stakes and plates won’t rust or wear away over the years. You can choose from different gauges and different heights of posts and you choose what you want to write on the nameplate whether it’s a traditional plant name or a favorite garden quote.

Diversity in choice and good things that last keep us happily gardening. Put Kincaid Plant Markers for perennials into your flower beds with a sense of accomplishment, pride, and sometimes with the finality of a mission accomplished.

Organize the Best Food for Butterflies With Nameplates for Plants

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Nameplates for Plants Can Help You Plan Who Visits Your Backyard

nameplates for plantsYou’ve filled your yard with a colorful gourmet of perennials set to entice all the neighborhood butterflies to your garden. You have the fuel for the adult butterflies, but have you provided for their children? If not, they are on their way to lay their eggs in the garden down the street where their descendants may just decide to stay if given the right food, sunlight, water, and shelter. In order to attract the most butterflies to your yard, you need to plant specific species for specific caterpillars. Nameplates for plants can help you remember and organize all the plants you’ll need to attract and keep those beautiful insects in your yard.

Mother Butterfly Knows Best

While most butterflies will sip from a variety of flower nectar, during their stage as a caterpillar they require certain leafy plants. A Monarch Butterfly will only lay its eggs on Milkweed plants so their caterpillars can feast specifically on it. A Meadow Fritillary caterpillar prefers violets, while a Compton Tortoise Shell prefers trees such as Birch, Poplar or Willow. Butterflies may not be picky about what flowers they sip, but they know where they must go to lay their eggs.

Who Visits Your Neighborhood?

When choosing butterfly plants for your backyard you’ll need to do some research. You may not care which butterflies come to your yard, but if you start to identify some of the ones you have seen in the neighborhood, you can plant the food those butterflies eat in their caterpillar stage. Label (for yourself, not the butterfly) the new host plants that will attract mother butterflies to lay their eggs on.

Labeling For Future Moves

It’s difficult enough to remember the names of the butterflies you’ve identified in your backyard, you shouldn’t have to also try to memorize all the colorful nectar sources in your yard. Nameplates for plants can help you remember those winged drifters that come and go through your garden over the years.

Nameplates for plants allow you to label both the plants for a caterpillar and its butterfly form. Over the seasons, you may realize you have another host plant across the yard you want to move closer to a nectar source. Having nameplates for plants will help you identify and organize your plants as you keep grooming your yard for scores of butterflies.

Diversify Your Garden

By placing your caterpillar and butterfly plants near each other, you are helping keep the new butterfly near a nectar source. Before this can happen, the caterpillar has to find a sheltered place to form its chrysalis. Butterfly gardens also need trees, shrubs and other vegetation to protect butterflies from the wind and for them to find a place to put their chrysalis.

We at Kincaid Plant Markers can help you plan for your neighborhood’s best butterfly garden. We don’t condone stealing from your neighbors, but we think of it as sharing those pollinators with the whole block. Our nameplates for plants can help you keep the process and plants all straight so that your butterfly garden soars into success.

Plant Markers Announce the Summer Fireworks of Daylilies

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Kick Off Your Show With the Assistance of Plant Markers

plant markersThe pressure that’s on a daylily. You have one day to shine, to let your glorious petals open in a burst of blended color shades. Thank heavens for the multiple buds that bloom consecutively along the same slender green stem. Blooming in the summer, they are reminiscent of fireworks that burst open, one after another on a hot Fourth of July evening. More than red, white or blue, daylilies offer many creamy and vibrant colors to your yard. Plant markers can help you remember the beautiful names that go with those beautiful blooms.

If you already have daylilies, you know their wonderful advantages. On hillsides they spread and help prevent erosion. Their thick grass-like tufts cascade into graceful clumps and keep weeds down and lock moisture in. Even when their blooms are done, the clumps of leaves provide beauty in the garden. That’s when those plant markers come in handy, reminding you and informing others that there are multiple types of daylilies that will appear or reappear again.

Besides bare hillsides, where are the best places to showcase your daylilies? While some gardeners like the cascading waterfall effect of putting all daylilies on a slope or in a pool-shaped garden, other gardeners like to blend their daylilies with plants that have contrasting leaves. Leaves that are oval, fuzzy, purple or another color or flat, wide and rounded make a nice blend with the daylily leaves.

If your yard feels one-dimensional, daylilies can be added in front of or around evergreen bushes near a stand of trees. The shape of the flexible stems will move softly in a breeze while the solid shrubs and trees provide the larger stability. Daylilies with ruffled edges add an extra softness over the straighter slender petals.

Your plant markers in a garden with daylilies may be to help you find where that foliage will appear in the early spring or it may be to identify the different types of daylilies that you plant in your yard. Some gardeners suggest keeping the variety of daylilies down to a minimum and letting those blooms blend and fill in garden spaces.

While some people may think that daylilies only last a short time, some varieties will last for weeks. Many varieties will combine to give more of a Fourth of July grand finale that lasts and lasts. So, if you choose subtle, go for a few varieties, but if you want liveliness in your garden, branch out to explore many shades and shapes to the starry daylilies. A solid green hedge or bush can give a soothing smooth background to make your daylilies of various colors shine.

Kincaid Plant Markers can help you identify your daylilies no matter their size. We offer plant markers that come in heights of 6”, 8″, 10”, 12″, 15”, 17″ and 20.” While the Fourth of July is past, we hope you’ll keep enjoying the burst of blooms in your backyard.

Garden Markers in the Edible Landscape

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How to Integrate Beauty and Function: Garden Markers Draw Visitors in for a Closer Look

garden markersIf you are considering converting some of your yard into a garden, or have even dabbled with the idea of adding some pizazz to an old existing garden, take just a few moments to consider an edible landscape design. Edible landscapes are attractive, smart, nutritious and have the bumper bonus of being environmentally friendly. Add some beautiful garden markers and these areas become wonderful points of interest and conversation.

 

A Few Reasons to Choose an Edible Landscape Design

  • The health benefits of eating local have been highly touted. Eating the fruits, vegetables and herbs which grow in your area (in this case your very own yard) provide added benefits.
  • If you have concerns about the chemicals and pesticides used by commercial growers but can’t afford to shop at the organic grocery store – growing more of your own produce makes sense. You can be as organic as you choose when you are the one in charge. You can also save money over buying at the organic market.
  • The convenience of snipping your own herbs or grabbing a ripe tomato for the dinner plate is rivaled only by the fabulous flavor of just-picked freshness.
  • It’s fun to plant, grow and harvest your own foods and garden markers make it easy to share you hobby with admirers.
  • Lastly, if more people grew produce at home we could reduce fuel and water consumption considerably. Think of it as your own contribution to the “green” movement.

 

What Plants Work Well in an Edible Landscape Design

  • Blueberry bushes could easily replace the decorative landscape bushes most families use. These plants look great throughout the year and yield buckets of early summer fruit
  • Depending upon where you live – fruit trees can be the ornamental trees that adorn your yard. Plum trees, cherry trees or pear trees all look lovely both in flower and in fruit.
  • Herbs make fanciful border or edging plants. Consider using thyme, chard, rosemary, purple basil or even paprika peppers to outline walkways or planting beds. Tuck in sturdy garden markers so visitors will know what is planted in your beds.

 

What About the Off-season

You may wonder how things will look in an edible landscape during the off-season. It’s true your edible garden areas will have a different look when they are in full-swing from the non-producing season. However, this is why you’ll want to be sure to include elements of interest which last throughout the year. Attractive pathways draw the eye into your garden. Well-positioned bird baths, trellises, arbors or fountains will look beautiful from season to season. And certainly, not every part of your garden needs to be edible, you can plant decorative ornamentals which will provide color and beauty all year long.

 

If you want to create or integrate edible landscaping into your lawn, you’ll need to have a plan. Think about what colors, textures and heights need to be incorporated. Think about ease of access for watering and harvesting. When you’ve made your design plan and are ready to dig, be sure to order enough Kincaid Plant Markers so that every plant gets noticed.

Creating a Delicious Herb Garden Starts With Herb Garden Markers

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Herb Garden Markers are a Part of a Successful Herb Garden

herb garden markersIf you love garden freshness but don’t have time to put in a complete vegetable patch, or maybe don’t have room for a full garden, you can still enjoy the great taste of home-grown goodness this summer with your very own herb garden. Herbs can flourish in a small amount of ground space. Potted herbs require even less room. You can choose herbs for looks or for kitchen use. There are so many from which to choose. Keep your herbs identified with attractive herb garden markers.

The Right Ingredients for a Successful Herb Garden
Whether you create your herb garden in a corner of the yard or in several decorative pots there are a couple of ingredients that go into making it a success.

Sunshine – there’s no substitute for a bright sunny spot when it comes to growing healthy plants. Position your herbs where they’ll receive plenty of energy from cheerful rays.

Water – give your herbs a drink of sweet, clean water on a regular basis. Keep in mind that potted herbs will need more frequent watering than those planted in the ground.

Rich Soil – hopefully, you have a plot of fertile earth in which to grow your plants but if not, visit the nursery and buy some enrichment so you can give your herbs a great place to live and grow. Be sure to allow space for your herbs to expand, especially if you are using pots. Some herbs tend to spread quickly under good conditions. Mint is one example of this. Don’t try to make mint share space in a pot with another herb – there will be a hostile takeover.

The Right Herbs for You
If your herb garden is mostly for kitchen use then choose the herbs that you like to use when cooking. Another criteria for selecting the right herbs could be insect control. Some herbs will keep insects at bay. Place pots of dill or citronella near your patio furniture to keep the bugs away. On the other hand, you may want to attract helpful insects. In which case cilantro and basil can help you.

If you place clearly labeled herb garden markers beside each plant you’ll never have to remember which plant is which. Markers are helpful when sending someone else outdoors to grab a few leaves of basil or a sprig of rosemary. They will also help you keep track of which plants did well in which areas.

When choosing the right herbs, choose quality seeds or seedlings and follow the attached instructions for planting, sun and watering. When choosing the right herb garden markers, also choose quality. Kincaid Plant Markers will look fabulous and serve you well year after year. So make some time for a delicious summer and plant an herb garden this weekend. You’ll be glad you did.

Plant Markers and Other Tools Bring Ease to Gardening

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Protect, Recognize and Celebrate Plants With Plant Markers

plant markersOh, the aching back. Sometimes that’s our response after a day of vigorous gardening. But we love our gardening and won’t give it up. Thanks to some innovative garden products, we can keep gardening with a little less pain, and a little more pleasure. Just like plant markers can label our young shoots and make our gardening a little easier, so can some of the following garden tools recommended by Health magazine:

  • Compression Gloves
    Cotton gloves breathe well, but can rip easily. Leather gloves protect well, but sometimes leave the hands sweaty. According to Health, the Bionic Relief Grip gardening gloves are just the right fit, are durable and keep your hands cool and dry with the terrycloth interior. The fingertips of the gloves are covered with silicone so you can grip your tools and plant markers with ease. The padded gloves keep blisters away and the wrist band helps support and keep your wrist from getting scratched.
  • Comfort Shovel
    A ring on the end of your shovel? A rounded rubber-covered handle on the end of the shovel is intended to give the gardener more support and a better grip.
  • Effortless Pruners
    If you have a lot of pruning to do, your hand muscles start to feel the ache. Some pruners like tools that take less effort to squeeze and can reduce the pain in your palm. For gardeners who suffer from arthritis this brings added value.
  • Lightweight Cordless Trimmer
    Trimming the hedges usually causes you to hold a pose that strains your back and shoulders. And you have to swing that power cord around so that you don’t slice it in half. Trimmers have become lighter to help ease strain and, even better, you don’t always have to use the extension cord and find an outlet when operating them.
  • Padded Seat and Kneeler
    Throw out the old cushy computer mouse pads that you’ve been using as garden kneelers and invest in the tool that you can kneel on for ground work and then flip over and sit on for pruning and placing your plant markers.
  • Stand-up Weeder
    You won’t have to use that padded kneeler for weeding if you have a stand-up weeder. Just step on a pedal and the tool will grab, twist and pull that weed right out of the ground.
  • Compact Hose
    Another back-saver and space-saver is the hose that coils up like a spring. You don’t have to drag it around corners, it’s light-weight and you don’t have to spend time winding it up when you’re done.

At Kincaid Plant Markers, we hope that our plant markers are yet another tool that makes your gardening easier. Plant markers allow you reassurance about where your tender plants are growing so they won’t be trampled or mistaken as weeds by others. It marks where they’ll pop up next growing season and labels them for visitors and for you. Let our plant markers add to your pleasure of gardening and the celebration of your beautiful and fruitful garden.

Here’s Some Shady Business: Get Reacquainted with Coleus

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Coleus 2Whether you’re a weekend gardener or a year-round gardener, creating an attractive garden in an area devoid of sun can pose a distinct challenge. When it comes to adding color and variety for those low-light niches, you have many options – and that in itself can be a bit daunting. May we suggest coleus? Read on to get acquainted (or reacquainted) with this sturdy shade plant.

Go ahead. Be a drama queen or king. In sunny spots you often look to colorful blossoms to pique interest; however, in the shade, you’ll need to choose plants based on color and texture in the foliage alone. For foliage value, resilience and color, coleus is hard to beat.

Be a multitasker. Coleus is a shade plant that does it all. The leaves are ruffled and leap forth in strong bursts of two-color combinations. Hues range from lime green to purple, magenta, yellows and brown. You can plant several different plants in a grouping and instantly have fabulous color and visual interest. In fact, coleus actually gain a brighter color hue the more shade they have!

Have it made in the shade with low-maintenance. Coleus is not at all fussy when it comes to soil. It won’t need much water; just enough to stay evenly moist. More sun means more water, but never overwater coleus. You can help your color display with gentle feeding, but, just as with water, don’t overdo it. Steady low-level nutrition will ensure that leaves provide the most dramatic color display. Also, be sure to pinch off any flower buds to keep all the energy focused on making fabulous foliage.

Name it and share it. If you have a shady spot that needs some sprucing up, or have a shady area in the garden which just seems to fade into the distance, coleus could be the answer. Areas without strong sun can still enjoy strong color, you just need to find a plant that comes to life under different conditions. While you experiment with different varieties, make Kincaid Plant Markers the finishing touch. Try our new Garden Series, a resilient blend of galvanized wire with a stainless steel plate that will give a cheerful, shiny sparkle to even your shadiest of areas.

Metal Garden Markers Make Integrated Gardens a Breeze

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Use Metal Garden Markers to Identify Veggies in Your Flower Beds

metal garden markersFor those with plenty of room, an ambling vegetable garden may be a yearly undertaking. Neat rows of greens, roots and vines can keep the summer kitchen stocked with a bumper crop of healthy goodness. But what if you don’t have large spaces to spare or the time to dig new rows of planting beds? You too can enjoy the bounty of summer veggies. A flower bed and some metal garden markers can create an integrated garden with much less fuss.

Three Seasons of Harvest

Sprinkling vegetable plants into your year-round landscaping is not only space-saving but it can provide both beauty and interest through several seasons with minimal effort. Summer vegetables are one obvious addition, but spring and fall vegetables can also spruce up your landscaping and your table for many calendar months. With a bit of forethought you can utilize your limited space for maximum productivity.

Few summer vegetables will thrive in the shade so pick spots where your plants will get lots of strong sunshine and enjoy well-drained soil. You’ll also need to keep the ground moist in order to pick juicy produce.

Natural Pest Control

Placing vegetable plants beside flowering plants will yield plenty of visual interest and not just for humans. Pollinators and pest-controlling insects will also be attracted. Unlike traditional vegetable gardens which can be plagued by pests, your integrated garden will have little or no need for man-made pest control.

Creating Visual Contrast

You want variety but not a hodgepodge so plan where you’ll place vegetables for aesthetic effect. Tall plants such as pole bean will look best as a backdrop or in an area lacking visual height. Cucumber or zucchini vines might look great trained up along a couple of lengths of fencing. Don’t have an available fence? Introduce a fabulous trellis and climb your vine plants upwards on this piece of garden art. Colorful tomatoes and peppers will pop next to lush green shrubbery while verdant lettuces make a charming plant for edging all spring and summer.

Identify With Metal Garden Markers

Make your integrated garden a real learner’s paradise simply by placing metal garden markers in front of each plant or variety. These markers will inform visitors and give them a reason to linger and investigate further. They’ll also look terrific through several seasons.

Just because you don’t have a lot of space doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the pleasures of vegetable gardening. Use the space you already have. Introduce vegetables to your flower garden and landscaped patches. Let Kincaid Plant Markers turn your ordinary landscaping into something extraordinary.

Help to Identify Your Plants in Your Edible Garden

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Identify Your Plants Easily With Sturdy Garden Markers

identify your plantsHave you ever planted your early spring lettuce or spinach only to have your spouse stomp over the tiny new growth on their way to plant their cucumbers or green beans? Better yet, have they ever yanked your new vegetables thinking they were weeds? Garden markers can identify your plants and help protect your part of the garden. They help you remember where you planted and identify that area for any others who wander through your garden.

Some of us garden for beauty and others for usability. Some garden because we just enjoy it and others garden out of necessity when erosion threatens a bare slope. Some of us can remember parents or grandparents or an aunt or uncle who always had a little garden in their backyard. Some people carry on this family tradition with those tomatoes or cucumbers or other lovely edibles. Edible gardens are certainly coming back or remaining strong these days as people try to save some money, eat healthier and use their time wisely in the yard. Finding the right way to identify your plants is very important to those who enjoy planting multiple plants throughout the growing season.

Time seems filled with so many things these days that some gardeners are going from grass to green beans (or whatever produce they like best). Tired of wasted time mowing, fertilizing and watering a lawn, some people are opting to convert their lawns to edible landscapes of berry bushes, fruit trees, vegetables and herbs. Time they spent watering, weeding and planting now seems very well-spent when they harvest their healthy produce. By reducing the distance from farm-to-table, they enjoy produce packed with higher quantities of vitamins and minerals.

Going “edible” doesn’t mean foregoing beauty in your yard. Multiple resources can offer ideas on the perfect edible and non-edible plant pairings so that your garden is still pretty while it has a purpose. Mother Earth News offers some ideas for interspersing flowering perennials with the vegetables in your yard and pairing some of these plants:

  • To add some color to a climbing vegetable, pair orange or red cherry tomatoes with a vine like purple or blue morning glories or cucumbers with coral gladiolus on a trellis or an arbor
  • Dwarf nasturtiums can dress up the lacy edges of the fern-like tops of carrots
  • Red runner beans with a backdrop of red and white striped zinnias
  • Bright orange tulips planted with mesclun at their feet and softly edged with a little height by parsley.

Perhaps you might like to go from grass to green beans (or whatever produce you like best). Throughout the growing season, vegetables will be harvested and gone, sometimes leaving an empty bare space. Sometimes non-edible plants can fill in, but plant markers can identify your plants and assure that your edibles can stay safe. At Kincaid Plant Markers we’d be happy to help protect your produce from your spouse’s big feet or weed-picking fingers with our variety of garden markers.