Choosing plants is exciting and fun, but it helps if you know how to read a plant tag to make the best choices for your garden. Here is some information about the purpose of a plant tag and how best to read one.

Plant tags vary a bit, but most of them contain important information about plant size, blooming, care needs and more. Recently, I bought some ‘Ballerina’ cranesbill from a bulb and plant sale. Here’s all the information on that simple plant tag.

Applying plant tag information to your existing garden

The front of the tag contains an image of the cranesbill in bloom, so I know it will go well with all the purple, yellow and white flowers I have in my garden. The top of the tag tells me the plant is perennial, meaning it will return season after season. Most perennials actually take a couple of years to reach full size in the garden, but I know this plant is a long-term investment.

The sun symbols indicate that this plant grows well in both full sun and part sun. The area I plan to plant it has shade in the morning and sun in the afternoon—it will grow great in that amount of light.

The tag also includes both the common and botanical name of the plant. All plants have an official botanical name, which tells you a lot about the plants it’s related to and how it grows. Common names are ones people may use to describe the plant but common names vary from place to place and person to person, so they are less reliable than botanical names.

How to grow and care for a plant based on plant tag information

The back of the plant tag includes a lot of information about how to grow and care for the plant. It includes a description on the top that tells me what characteristics this plant has that make it attractive or useful in the garden. Below that, the tag says when the plant blooms.

This is good to know, because while it’s tempting to buy all the plants in bloom at the nursery when you are shopping, you want bloom and color all season long. Check this to make sure your garden has spring, early summer, late summer and fall blooming plants.

The back of the tag also gives care instructions. In this case, the plant likes a fairly moist situation. No problem—my backyard is a bit damp. It also tells you the height and width of the plant. Geraniums are low-growing plants. That’s fine with me, because I’m using it as a groundcover or living mulch.

The tag also tells you which cold hardiness zones the plant survives in. The northern part of Minnesota is USDA Zone 3. The southern two-thirds of the state is either zone 4 or 5. This plant will thrive anywhere in Minnesota.

Finally, at the very bottom of the tag, there is an image of a deer with the “no” symbol over it. This means that deer do not like this plant and probably won’t bother it. (If they are hungry, deer will eat anything!) I don’t have a deer issue, but it’s good to know.

Keep your plant tags for future reminders

It’s a good idea to keep your plant tags. I have a very dirty folder that I keep with tags for all the different plants in my yard. Sometimes I clean it out and remove the ones that have died or I got rid of. Keeping the tags helps me remember what I’ve planted where and reminds me of the care needs of plants in my yard.

Have a great time plant shopping this spring!

Mary Lahr Schier is a Minnesota gardener, writer and editor and author of The Northern Gardener, From Apples to Zinnias, 150 Years of Garden Wisdom (Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2017), winner of the Silver Award of Merit from GardenComm in 2018. For 18 years, she edited Northern Gardener magazine, the publication of the Minnesota Horticultural Society and the only magazine dedicated to gardening in USDA Zones 3, 4 and 5..

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