Heroes of Horticulture
High Country Gardens has partnered with Plant Select® for years to offer unique, tough, and reliable plants for the waterwise garden. Our partnership continues with Heroes of Horticulture! In the Heroes of Horticulture series, we'll feature some of the most well-known names in the industry, highlighting the hard work of the plant enthusiasts behind the High Country Gardens catalog of plants.
What Makes A Hero of Horticulture?
A Horticulture Hero has an infectious passion for plants, is driven to understand and experiment with plants, and is not afraid to fail in pursuit of plant knowledge and plant discovery. Horticulture Heroes share their knowledge and enthusiasm with an ever-growing exchange of plants, plant knowledge, networking, and community building within the world of horticulture. With an eye for detail, keen observation skills, and persistent inquiry into the connections between plants, water, soil, other living organisms, and the surrounding environment, Horticultural Heroes never stop learning and are driven to improve the urban environment through their horticultural endeavors. Read on to learn more about some of our Heroes of Horticulture.
Sally Walker: Plant Explorer | Lauren Springer: Garden Designer | David Salman: Chief Horticulturist
By David Salman, High Country Gardens Chief Horticulturist
The gardening world has been enriched by generations of plant explorers and seed collectors who have spent their lives in the remote regions of the world to bring back plant treasures for gardeners to grow and appreciate. Western gardeners have Sally Walker, founder of Southwestern Native Seeds of Tucson, Arizona.
Sally and her husband have spent a lifetime exploring the vast areas of the western United States and northern Mexico, searching for beautiful and useful native wildflowers. This is a difficult task that involves many months away from home, driving thousands of miles across the deserts, plains, and mountains to identify and document plants. Then, they must return at just the right time to collect seeds!
Originally from England, Sally studied horticulture and worked in plant nurseries in the United Kingdom and New Zealand before moving to the United States in the 1960s. She worked in California before settling in Arizona with her husband, Tim Walker, who worked for the US Forestry. In 1975, she founded "Sally's Seedery" in Tuscon, AZ, which later became Southwestern Native Seeds. While Southwester Native Seeds is no longer in business, Sally's impact on the world of native plants lives on!
Gardening is a collaborative effort, and we owe a debt of gratitude to Sally Walker and other Western plant explorers for their work that has enriched our gardens.
Here we have an image of the 1993-1994 Southwestern Native Seeds catalog. For a transcript of this page of the catalog, click here.
Some of our very best High Country Garden native plants are a result of Sally's efforts and exploration. The plants below are just a few plants that we grow from her seed collections.
Notable Plants
Hand-drawn illustrations on the cover of Southwestern Native Seeds include two well-loved native plants available from High Country Gardens: Penstemon palmeri (Palmer's Penstemon) and Penstemon pseudospectabilis (Desert Penstemon).
By Ross Shrigley and Emily Goldman of Plant Select®
When Lauren Springer's book, The Undaunted Garden, was published in 1994, it was a wake-up call for gardeners, designers, and horticulturists. Until her book debuted, no one at that time understood how gorgeous water-smart gardens in the interior west's climates and soils could be.
Lauren's beautiful photos and intimate writing style illustrated how to create a sense of place, and everyone wanted an "undaunted" garden! A plant's beauty and purpose were revealed through Lauren's work, and so began a regional movement towards lush-looking western gardens with tough and resilient drought-tolerant plants. Lauren challenged growers to ask themselves, "Why aren't we offering more environmentally sustainable plants?" It's no wonder Plant Select® became an organization in 1997, led by a committee of forward-thinking horticulturists, including Lauren. It was this same year that The Undaunted Garden won an American Horticultural Society Award for one of the 75 best gardening books of the 20th century.
Lauren's signature garden designs unabashedly embrace a diverse palette of native plants and regionally attuned exotics. Water-wise plants weave together, colors and textures give you goosebumps, and seasonal shifts are celebrated. Her designs result in dynamic year-round beauty that also benefits wildlife. Lauren grows many of her plants, and has introduced many plants to the regional trade and garden designs across the country. Her work graces botanic gardens, municipal gardens, and non-profits like Plant Select®, where anyone can download a Lauren Springer Ogden Garden Design featuring Plant Select® plants.
Additional books by Lauren include Plant-Driven Design: Creating Gardens That Honor Plants, Place and Spirit (2008), Waterwise Plants for Sustainable Gardens: 200 Drought-Tolerant Choices for all Climates (2011), and Passionate Gardening: Good Advice for Challenging Climates (2000).
Lauren is now on staff at The Gardens on Spring Creek in Fort Collins, Colorado, managing the 3/4 acre Undaunted Garden and 350 foot long hellstrip garden she created. Lauren continues to share her knowledge and design talent there, inspiring visitors and mentoring the next generation of horticultural heroes!
Notable Pre-Planned Gardens, Plants, and Books
Designed by Lauren Springer in partnership with Plant Select to benefit the Audubon Rockies Habitat Hero Program.
Introduced into cultivation in the US by Lauren Springer. 2006 High Country Gardens Plant of the Year.
Selected by Lauren Springer in her Colorado garden.
Discovered by Lauren Springer in her Colorado garden.
David Salman, Founder and Chief Horticulturist at High Country Gardens, has spent over 30 years in pursuit of better plants for eco-friendly landscapes. Long before "organic" became a household word, David has encouraged gardeners to use sustainable, environmentally friendly practices when gardening. David’s passion for plants has been expressed in the numerous unique plant hybrids he has developed and introduced to the world of horticulture.
David Salman founded Santa Fe Greenhouses in 1984, which led to the start of High Country Gardens as a mail order catalog in 1993. The award-winning High Country Gardens catalog won four silver awards and one gold award for Best Gardening Catalog by Catalog Age magazine. David is also a founding member of Plant Select®, and a distinguished recipient of the 2008 American Horticultural Society Great American Gardeners Award.
In 20 years, David has introduced more than 50 plants! His introductions include native, hybrid, and Old World plants, with a special focus on beautiful plants for waterwise gardens. Showy, waterwise, and pollinator-friendly Agastache are some David Salman's favorite plants to work with - and some of the seeds he used were collected by Horticulture Hero Sally Walker. Learn more: Agastache Introductions. Other introductions include Lavender plants, Hesperaloe (Texas Yucca), Salvia plants, and more. David continues to develop exciting new plants for the High Country Gardens catalog, and each year, waterwise gardens across the country benefit from his innovations. See our current selection of Exclusive Plants & Introductions.
Not only are his plants beneficial for waterwise gardens - they're typically excellent for pollinators as well. In David's new FlowerKisser™ plant line, perennial introductions are especially nectar-rich to nourish bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The story behind the name? The Brazilian word for hummingbird translates to “flower kisser.”
David is a recognized expert in the field of water-wise gardening and xeriscaping and an enthusiaistic, highly-sought-after speaker on these subjects throughout the United States. Gardeners who are fortunate enough to speak with David or hear a presentation are sure to be captivated by his storytelling and passion for plants. Fortunately, High Country Gardens is home to a large number of gardening videos where curious gardeners can learn more from our Chief Horticulturist!
Notable Plants
2005 High Country Gardens Plant of the Year
2011 High Country Gardens Plant of the Year
2015 High Country Gardens Plant of the Year
2016 High Country Gardens Plant of the Year, 2016 Green Thumb Award Winner
2017 High Country Gardens Plant of the Year
2019 High Country Gardens Plant of the Year
