About

About Us

In 1993, I started High Country Gardens, the mail order division of Santa Fe Greenhouses, my retail nursery company in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Our online catalog has been in operation since 2000, with my wife, Ava Salman, heading the marketing and e-commerce operations.

"I wanted to make shopping our catalog a fun, convenient and hassle-free way to buy top-quality plants and products."
--David Salman

New Retail Garden Center

In 2006, we opened the High Country Gardens retail garden center at the Jackalope store in Albuquerque. The 6500 square foot garden center is stocked with our quality High Country Gardens plants and merchandise. Map

Award Winning Plants

Avastache x 'Ava'
Agastache x 'Ava', Our most popular Award Winner!

Take a look at our beautiful award-winning plants. High Country Gardens has won 9 out of 9 consecutive awards for best new plant introduction from the Mail Order Gardening Association.

We have spent years perfecting our growing methods for a wide variety of new and unusual garden-tested perennials, grasses and shrubs that ship right from our greenhouses to your landscape.

Santa Fe Greenhouses

You will gain a few new gardening ideas to try at home when you visit our Xeric Demonstration and Cottage Display gardens located at our Santa Fe Greenhouses nursery in Santa Fe, New Mexico. We are proud of our highly-qualified and knowledgable staff --many who give seminars, garden tours, and workshops throughout the year.

Articles about David Salman and High Country Gardens :

Expert landscape doesn't have to be expensive Long Beach Press Telegram, July 20, 2009

How about a landscape designer in a box? The Oregonian. June 17, 2009

David Salman on HGTV Gardening by the Yard
HGTV - Paul James and Gardening by the Yard featured David Salman on June 7th.

Xeriscaping, Drought-Tolerant Plants, Wise Water Practices. This is the 2nd time David has been featured on on Gardening by the Yard.  The previous episode featured Hyssops, one of David's favorites:www.hgtv.com/gardening-by-the-yard/hummingbirds-and-hyssop/index.html

Business Profile, David Salman Albuquerque Journal. June 8, 2009

David Salman on HGTV published in the Santa Fe New Mexican's El Mitote, May 31, 2009

Garden Party, interview with David Salman in the April 2009 New Mexico Magazine Feature

"Sage Advice," by David Salman. Article published in the September/October issue of Fine Gardening Magazine.

Xeriscaping: A Hot Topic in Santa Fe
by NPR Senior Correspondent Ketzel Levine

"Southwestern look in Bay Area Gardens", Amy Stewart,  San Francisco Cronicle

Ava Salman

directs marketing and e-commerce operations for High Country Gardens and Santa Fe Greenhouses. Under Salman’s direction, HighCountryGardens.com ranks among the most highly rated gardening sites on the internet. Our print catalog has won 4 silver and 1 gold awards for Best Gardening Catalog by Catalog Age magazine, and High Coutry Gardens ranks in the TOP 30 most highly rated companies of Dave's Garden Watchdog. Santa Fe Greenhouses, our retail garden center has been voted Best Nursery by Santa Fe Reporter readers 10 years in a row!

Ava Salman contributes her expertise in the plant ordering business as a board member of the nonprofit Mail Order Gardening Association.

Monthly Ezines

David Salman shares valuable gardening information each month in our Waterwise Garden News. If you haven't signed up yet, click here.

Gardening Tips

Our library is brimming with resources. Since 2001, we've provided free gardening information that is now accessible in an easy-to-use format. You will find information to help solve a garden problem, get inspired to design a new bedding area or learn about a number of soil, water and plant related topics.		  


David Salman, President and Chief Horticulturist, High Country Gardens/Santa Fe Greenhouses. writes The Xeric Gardener, a blog with Gardening news & tips for the waterwise gardener.

2008 GREAT AMERICAN GARDENERS NATIONAL AWARD WINNER
A national speaker on the topic of Waterwise Gardening and Xeriscaping, David Salman has spent over 20 years in pursuit of better plants for western landscapes. In 2008, he was a distinguished recipient of the AMERICAN HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 2008 Great American Gardeners Awards.

A prolific writer as well, Salman writes the copy for our award-winning print catalog. He has written two in-house publications Waterwise Garden Care and Spectacular Seasons of Color, and has recently created successful planting videos for YouTube. In addition, he writes The Xeric Gardener, a blog with Gardening news & tips for the waterwise gardener.

He has written numerous articles for Fine Gardening, American Gardener and Horticulture magazine.

Ava Salman, Vice-President
Ava Salman, Vice-President, directs the marketing and e-commerce operations for High Country Gardens.


Retail Garden Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico
Retail Garden Center at the Jackalope Store, 6400 San Mateo NE, Albuquerque, New Mexico.