Are you like me and wish you could select clematis like you can choose your scoops of ice cream at Baskin Robbins 31 flavors Ice Cream Parlors? At their stores you are not just limited to classic favorites such as vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, you also have an opportunity to pick from at least another 28 additional delicious flavors. Wouldn’t it be nice to see more clematis growers adopt Baskin Robbins’ approach to selling their ice cream, which is to regularly change the selection of flavors they have available? Don’t get me wrong, I love to grow the time-honored clematis and will continue to recommend them because they are a worthwhile investment for our gardens. However, there are also many other fabulous clematis that could be grown as well. So, one of my pet peeves is that, many clematis growers are growing the very same clematis year after year. This means there is too much vanilla, chocolate and strawberry and not enough Creole Cream Cheese Ice Cream and Strawberry Lemonade Punch Sherbet (yes, those are actual BR31 flavors) out there to choose from.
I suspect the reason behind this lack of selection is many growers may be buying from the same clematis source(s). So, this means that the chances of offering a larger variety of options are diminished. I wish that growers would explore alternatives and try some different cultivars and species. To be honest, how many Clematis ‘Jackmanii’ or Clematis ‘Nelly Moser’ can one gardener grow? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to grow a scrumptious, rich, dark-purple clematis such as C. HAPPY BIRTHDAY or a yummy bright-mauve one like C. ‘Kaaru’? The options are limitless (okay, I may be embellishing here a bit). My hope though is that in the not too distant future we will see an improved availability of clematis, giving us the chance to choose from new assortments every year, so we literally (okay, figuratively) can’t even count our cultivar choices. I can dream can’t I?
It was the late cofounders Burt Baskin and Irvine Robbins’ belief that ice cream should be a “fun” thing. After all, who doesn’t like a scoop of ice cream? It was Mr. Robbins who added to the fun by coming up with the concept of offering one flavor for each day of the month, hence the 31 flavors. Happily their company continues to emphasize “variety”. I hope you agree with me that the more clematis choices made available would ultimately translate to more “fun” for clematis gardeners! I know I would certainly have no trouble picking a clematis to grow for each day of the month.