Foundation Planting: Visiting The Salmans' New Mexico Gardens

By Kendall Frost, High Country Gardens Content Manager | Photos by Hadley Mueller | Updated 3/11/25

We recently visited the home of High Country Gardens founders, Ava Salman and the late David Salman, in New Mexico. These gardens are home to an exciting assortment of colorful perennials, cacti, succulents, and shrubs that illustrate the maximum potential of xeriscaping. This residential landscape is a special reflection of Ava and David Salman's many years as horticultural leaders. Read on to join us for a tour!

When we first arrived at the house, we were intrigued by the front garden. Bordered by an adobe wall, the garden greets visitors with special selections of cold hardy cacti, unique groundcovers, well-established Lavender shrubs, and native shrubs.

Stone blocks create organic borders that perfectly complement the xericaped garden, with stone pathways that lead visitors through the interesting garden specimens. The lush garden, with many beautiful native plant varieties, creates a distinctive sense of place and highlights the beauty of New Mexico and the Southwest.

Native shrubs, evergreens, and cacti are artfully planted to create an inviting, naturalistic landscape with a strong sense of place. The garden border offers year-round interest, with evergreens, Agaves including Agave parryi (Parry's Century Plant), Salvia greggii 'Furman's Red', mature Cercocarpus (Mountain Mahogany), and more shrubs.

Low-growing cacti and succulents in the front include Melampodium leucanthum (Blackfoot Daisy), Echinocereus coccineus (Scarlet Hedgehog Cactus), Aloinopsis spathulata, and Stachys species.

Wrapping around the side of the house, a stone walkway is lined with Agastache rupestris and 'Thumbelina Leigh' Lavender. Both plants give off an amazing fragrance when their foliage is brushed by the hand of a passing visitor, making these plants the perfect selection for a waterwise walkway!

Creeping Veronica x Blue Reflection® adds a carpet of evergreen foliage beneath the tall, airy Agastache plant, and spreads out between the pavers. In spring, the walkway is filled with the tiny blue flowers. 

Tucked behind the adobe wall, we found a very special specimen. Agastache x 'Ava' is a High Country Gardens introduction that David Salman named for his wife, Ava. 

Of all the Hummingbird Mint varieties High Country Gardens has released - and they are our specialty - this is our finest introduction. This stately hybrid of Agastache cana and Agastache barberi features huge spikes of deep rose-pink flowers with raspberry-red calyxes, and sweetly scented foliage. Flowering begins in mid-summer and continues for months, with flowers intensifying in color with each passing week. 'Ava' remains our most popular Agastache introduction to this day.

It was a joy to photograph Ava with her beautiful namesake cultivar in peak bloom.

The backyard garden border features another famous High Country Garden introduction in abundance: Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition'. On that early fall day, the distinctive golden-blonde horizontal seedheads were aglow in the sun, a lovely complement to the adobe walls and vibrant late-season blooms.

A beautiful selection of High Country Gardens perennial introductions are paired with 'Blonde Ambition' to complete the backyard border. The border features Salvia x 'Raspberry Delight' with magenta blooms, Salvia pachyphylla 'Mulberry Flambe' with silvery foliage, Nepeta x 'Walker's Deep Blue' is a bumblebee favorite, and Scutellaria x 'Dark Violet' with a tidy mounding habit. All with long-blooming flowers, fragrance, and abundant nectar are perfect for attracting hummingbirds to the garden.

In the back yard, a cool corner provides respite from the New Mexico sun. The part-shade corner is planted with a selection of colorful perennials.

Ceratostigma plumbaginoides (Hardy Plumbago) is a favorite groundcover for many reasons - its true blue flowers are eye-catching, and its dense, leafy foliage spreads to create attractive groundcover that turns burgundy red in fall. Plus, the plant can thrive in almost any soil type and even blooms and flowers in partial shade. 

Zauschneria canum var. arizonica 'Sky Island Orange' (Hummingbird Trumpet) is also a High Country Gardens introduction. The seeds for the original selection were collected in the high elevation pine forests of the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona. David's 'Sky Island Orange' selection was the longest bloomer. With gracefully pendulous, deep orange flowers, 'Sky Island Orange' stands out as very different from all the other plants in the bed. The blue blooms of Hardy Plumbago provide just the right contrast to help the blooms stand out even more from the cool, shaded surroundings. 

High Country Gardens horticultural manager, Lauren Carvalho, worked with David Salman in New Mexico, learning more about his plants, propagation, and horticultural practices, before joining High Country Gardens. Spending time with Lauren and Ava together, we were able to hear stories behind many of the plant specimens in the garden. The garden is a beautiful reflection of David's Legacy, and a reminder that when we nurture our gardens, we also nurture friendships and relationships with our fellow gardeners.

Thank you, Ava, for welcoming us to your home for this incredible garden tour.  We are so grateful to be able to share it with the High Country Gardens community.