Display bed cards effectively
Bed cards are an essential part of most garden centres' plant labelling strategy
The 8x6" bedcard or bed label has been around for years. Pre-printed bed cards are available from plant labelling specialists and are sometimes furnished to the retailer by the nursery supplying the plants.
This "inch" size is close metric paper size A5. Many retailers also produce bedcards of their own, either printed two to an A4 page or using precut A5 paper.
These paper prints are then sealed in a laminating pouch, once more making the finished size slightly bigger.
When we developed our Slim Frames an important consideration was that the frame should accommodate all these variants.
Having achieved this we then produced a clear plastic U-channel called Grip Strip (pictured right) which could be screwed onto plant benches to grip Slim frames which are simply pushed into place.
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Angled clips, called Vari-Tite clips, work on bench edges up to 1" (25mm thick).
The clips will not open up for thicker boards.
However they can be usued successfuly on some half-round timber benches and on aluminium plant tables. We advise testing with a sample initially as with so many sizes and colours to choose from these card holders are a made-on-demand item.
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Uses of Grip Strip
Grip Strip is made from clear UV stabilised PVC and it should last outdoors for a number of years. It is relatively low cost and even when the cost of Slim Frames is factored in the overall cost is usually competitive.
Outdoors, where subjected to strong winds, the frames need to be braced against a back board - usually a timber board or close pattern trellis. However, indoors or in a sheltered covered area, Grip Strip can be fixed to the top member of a bench with the frames stood upright (as pictured above).
Grip strip can also be used at an angle
When bed card holders are fitted at the front of the bench it is strongly advisable to angle them for easy reading.
Grip Strip (our clear plastic U-channel) also offers a solution in this situation provided that the palnt benches are constructed correctly. There needs to be a sloping board behind the frames with an overhang at the top into which the Grip Strip is attached by screws. See image left.
One attraction of using Grip Strip is that frames can be moved as required. The frames are a push fit into the PVC extrusion and are held securely, but they can be pulled out and moved.
This means that in contrast to continuous black or green PVC bed card track, customers are not faced with many metres of coloured plastic with the occasional bed card.
On the other hand, for sections containing a lot of different plants where bed labels are virtually shoulder to shoulder, traditional PVC label track remains a cost effective option.
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