Garden centre plastic bed-card label track

About garden centre bed label display

Bed labels or bed cards used in the UK garden centre industry were traditionally manufactured in 8"x6" size - which is close to A5 though not exactly the same. For many years Burall Floraprint was a leading UK manufacturer of 6" high bed labels and one of their display accessories was called FloraTrack - a premium aluminium bed card track.  Burall Floraprint was taken over by FloraMedia who have now stopped selling FloraTrack. At Green Magic, we have generally found that a heavy-duty PVC version is a perfectly satisfactory alternative to Flora Track - and significantly cheaper.

Alternative Options

Using PVC track to display bed cards is ideal in areas such as the A to Z section, where different varieties are placed closely adjacent, and as a consequence, bed labels are virtually shoulder-to-shoulder.  However, there are areas where fewer bed cards are required (e.g. large blocks of the same plant or where the label attached to the plant itself or its pot is the principal source of customer information).  In these situations, lengths of 'bare' plastic track can look unattractive, and it may be better to choose one of our other bed label display options - such as Slim Frames combined with Grip Strip - which we regard as the optimum approach in many cases.
 

Fixing of PVC Track

PVC track is generally easy to cut to length and fit.  Most nurseries and garden centres treat fixing as a DIY job for handy staff members.  However, PVC expands and contracts depending on the temperature - typically by up to 4mm over a 2-metre length between summer and winter.  To prevent quilting and distortion, an allowance should be made.  Fixing screws with a separate cup washer is ideal for creating an expansion/contraction facility.

We suggest oversize pilot holes are drilled of an ample size such that the screw head and washer covers the hole, but there is space around the body of the screw for thermal expansion and contraction of the PVC.  N.B. The plastic will expand/contract more than the timber it is fixed to.  

Installation is ideal when the weather is neither especially cold nor hot, as the product will be in the mid-range of its thermal expansion cycle.  Installation in cold weather can contribute to the quilting of the track as it warms up and expands, though in practice, some distortion is to be expected and should not affect the performance of the product. Screwing the track down its centre line is normally most successful.  Too many screws, and it has nowhere to go when expansion occurs, and rippling can become more pronounced.