When David Salman started his own nursery in 1984, he did so out of frustration. Born and raised in the Southwest, Salman was tired of watching gardeners force eastern plants into their western gardens—an often futile activity that results in dead plants and disappointed gardeners. “Many of the perennials offered in the industry are from an eastern palette,” Salman explains. “Those plants just don’t work out here.”

So with the help of his father, Salman opened Santa Fe Greenhouses, Inc., a full-service retail nursery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, specializing in plants that thrive in cool mountain climates. Nine years later, in 1993, he expanded into the mail-order business under the name High Country Gardens. The mail-order catalog features the nursery’s more uncommon offerings, which, because of Santa Fe’s small population, didn’t always sell as quickly as Salman would have liked. “Sometimes I felt like I had a plant museum,” Salman recalls with a laugh. “I had a lot of interesting plants that people came to look at, but not to buy.” Sales are no longer a problem, however; today High Country Gardens is one of the leading mail-order nurseries for introducing new western plants into gardens around the country.

Uncommon Selections
One reason for High Country Gardens’ success is its dedication to bringing new and exciting plants into the market. Salman describes himself as a “collector by nature,” and a quick look through his catalog provides a visual testimony of that description. The catalog features many uncommon southwestern natives, including flame flower (Talinum calycinum) and dwarf sundrops (Calylophus serrulatus) — both native to the short grass prairies of the western Great Plains — and the endangered redbirds-in-a-tree (Scrophularia macrantha), a penstemon relative grown from seed collected on Cookes Peak near Deming, New Mexico.

In addition to southwestern natives, many plants native to the mountainous regions of South Africa have also found their way into the catalog. For this, Salman has Panayoti Kelaidis, curator of environmental gardens at the Denver Botanic Gardens, to thank. Many of Kelaidis’s South African introductions, including the winter-hardy gazania (Gazania linearis ‘Colorado Gold’) and the African daisy (Osteospermum ecklonis ‘Lavender Mist’), were first offered in North America by High Country Gardens. Purple ice plant (Delosperma cooperi), another Kelaidis introduction that was tested and then offered by High Country Gardens, has since become the top-selling ground cover in the Rocky Mountain region. “The widespread success of these plants surprises me sometimes,” Kelaidis says. “I introduced D. cooperi for us here in Denver, but people from California to Florida are growing it now.” Kelaidis credits High Country Gardens for bringing these plants into the public eye. “David has been at the forefront of launching major new plants into cultivation,” he says. “It’s very rewarding for me to know that these plants are grown throughout the country.”

Salman’s favorite offering, and the nursery’s top seller, is the fragrant southwestern native sunset hyssop (Agastache rupestris), started from a single packet of seeds donated by a private collector six years ago. “I’ve always had a keen interest in hummingbird gardens,” says Salman, “and this agastache attracts hummingbirds in droves.” The nursery also carries 17 penstemon species, including the unusual yellow-flowered pineleaf penstemon (Penstemon pinifolius ‘Mersea Yellow’). And Salman is excited about P. pinifolius ‘Mango’, a new cultivar with soft apricot-colored flowers that he will release in 2000. Not Just For The Southwest
Although High Country Gardens specializes in plants native to cool mountain climates, gardeners from most areas of North America can enjoy at least a few of the nursery’s unusual offerings. The one exception is the Southeast, where high temperatures and humidity are fatal to many of these plants. Gardeners in the Northeast and Northwest, however, can successfully grow most of the plants, and Salman and his staff are always glad to help gardeners select the right plants for their region.

One of Salman’s eastern customers is Isa Catto, an artist living in New York City. Catto, who gardens on a 25-square-foot rooftop, moved East from Colorado two and a half years ago. “I missed my western garden,” she says, “so I decided to start one here.” One of Catto’s most recent purchases is lion’s-ear (Leonotis leonurus), a South African native with fuzzy, orange sherbet- colored flowers. This drought-tolerant plant, along with the others she has purchased from High Country Gardens, fits in perfectly with Catto’s busy lifestyle. Because she does a lot of traveling, she has little time to pamper plants. “For me, it’s a matter of practicality,” she explains. “But even in the East we have water problems, so xeric plants make sense to me.”

For many western gardeners, High Country Gardens has been the answer to their prayers. When Virginia Ancin moved from Pennsylvania to the high plains of Colorado seven years ago, she was shocked the first season by the death toll in her garden. “I was at a loss,” she recalls. “I’d just never thought about the differences between eastern and western gardening.” Now, instead of slaving over delicate primroses—which inevitably suffered a horrible death—she grows such vigorous plants as Mexican hat (Ratibida columnifera), Turkish speedwell (Veronica liwanensis), and snow-in-summer (Cerastium tomentosum). “It’s a matter of adjusting to a different style of gardening,” she says. “You won’t find any dainty plants here, just very hardy, robust plants.”

It is this growing embracement of a western style of gardening that Kelaidis finds so exciting. “David is really pioneering a different aesthetic,” he says. “It’s a style of gardening that was not handed down to us from the English. This is a truly American way of gardening.”

Christina M. Scott is assistant editor of The American Gardener.