Greenhouse Tour
This weekend I took a greenhouse tour conducted by David Salman, and it was really interesting.
David Salman is kind of a rock star in the gardening world. He is a plant explorer who has introduced many new xeric plants into the trade over the past 30 years. He founded the Santa Fe Greenhouses garden center in 1984 along with his parents, and it was a much beloved institution in town.
In 1993 David started to publish a catalog to satisfy demand from all the out of state tourists who saw his southwest-adapted high altitude plants that they could get nowhere else. He started a mail order business from his greenhouse and called it High Country Gardens.
By the time I started gardening in 2007, his catalog shipped mail order plants to all 48 lower states and his introductions were famous. I bought from him, even though my Connecticut garden wasn't really suited to many southwest plants. But I loved the catalog.
But six years ago David wanted to get back to plants, seed hunting, and growing. To the utter dismay of Santa Fe gardeners (they still wail about it today), he closed Santa Fe Greenhouses in 2013 and sold the High Country Gardens mail order business.
Today he remains chief horticulturalist for High Country Gardens and his greenhouses, which still stand where the retail garden center was, are a propagation source for High Country Gardens.
His tour was fascinating and we got to wander throughout all the propagation houses while he talked about how he finds and trial-tests plants. He gets to name them as new introductions are marketed, and he is the one who comes up with names like 'Poncha Pass' (that's where he found the seed) and 'Flower Kisser' (um . . ) and Ava' (for his wife, aww).
When a new or different variety of a plant is discovered in the wild or bred in a greenhouse, seed is collected and the resulting plants are propagated for sale. The plant is then patented. It's a weird concept, "owning" something living that simply produces more of itself, can easily make more in anyone's garden and can be easily shared with anyone else. But if it is sold by anyone other than patent owner, royalties must be paid. I don't know how I feel about this system.
Since the garden center is closed now, all of David's stock is now shipped to High Country Gardens distribution centers in Utah and Colorado, so even though I live in Santa Fe and a plant is propagated and grown three miles from me for several seasons, it goes to Utah to be shipped to my house if I order through the catalog. That's weird.
Fortunately, David opens the greenhouses on weekends in May and locals can buy retail directly from him then, although after that the place reverts to a wholesale grower for High Country Gardens only.
As part of the weekend openings, he conducts tours of the greenhouses and the trial gardens and I thought it was a great experience. He is quiet, thoughtful and very informative, but his delight in growing plants is what makes him so engaging. He loves plants, gets excited about finding new varieties, and enjoys seeing something grow well and look good.
He makes you want to garden.
David Salman is kind of a rock star in the gardening world. He is a plant explorer who has introduced many new xeric plants into the trade over the past 30 years. He founded the Santa Fe Greenhouses garden center in 1984 along with his parents, and it was a much beloved institution in town.
In 1993 David started to publish a catalog to satisfy demand from all the out of state tourists who saw his southwest-adapted high altitude plants that they could get nowhere else. He started a mail order business from his greenhouse and called it High Country Gardens.
By the time I started gardening in 2007, his catalog shipped mail order plants to all 48 lower states and his introductions were famous. I bought from him, even though my Connecticut garden wasn't really suited to many southwest plants. But I loved the catalog.
But six years ago David wanted to get back to plants, seed hunting, and growing. To the utter dismay of Santa Fe gardeners (they still wail about it today), he closed Santa Fe Greenhouses in 2013 and sold the High Country Gardens mail order business.
Today he remains chief horticulturalist for High Country Gardens and his greenhouses, which still stand where the retail garden center was, are a propagation source for High Country Gardens.
His tour was fascinating and we got to wander throughout all the propagation houses while he talked about how he finds and trial-tests plants. He gets to name them as new introductions are marketed, and he is the one who comes up with names like 'Poncha Pass' (that's where he found the seed) and 'Flower Kisser' (um . . ) and Ava' (for his wife, aww).
When a new or different variety of a plant is discovered in the wild or bred in a greenhouse, seed is collected and the resulting plants are propagated for sale. The plant is then patented. It's a weird concept, "owning" something living that simply produces more of itself, can easily make more in anyone's garden and can be easily shared with anyone else. But if it is sold by anyone other than patent owner, royalties must be paid. I don't know how I feel about this system.
Since the garden center is closed now, all of David's stock is now shipped to High Country Gardens distribution centers in Utah and Colorado, so even though I live in Santa Fe and a plant is propagated and grown three miles from me for several seasons, it goes to Utah to be shipped to my house if I order through the catalog. That's weird.
Fortunately, David opens the greenhouses on weekends in May and locals can buy retail directly from him then, although after that the place reverts to a wholesale grower for High Country Gardens only.
As part of the weekend openings, he conducts tours of the greenhouses and the trial gardens and I thought it was a great experience. He is quiet, thoughtful and very informative, but his delight in growing plants is what makes him so engaging. He loves plants, gets excited about finding new varieties, and enjoys seeing something grow well and look good.
He makes you want to garden.
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