david salman’s mint cousins for a garden abuzz

IN THE MOOD for something aromatic, hot-colored, and abuzz with insect pollinators, butterflies and hummingbirds? With the help of High Country Gardens’ founder David Salman, let’s make a beeline to plants in the Mint family, like Salvia and Agastache and even wacky-looking Phlomis, to enliven our gardens.

David, also known as the Xeric Gardener, is chief horticulturist of High Country Gardens in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The former garden center, now closed, began in 1984, but you can visit anytime online, or in the print catalog (published since 1993; the catalog-request form is here).

I first met David through my work years ago at Martha Stewart Living, in the days when almost nobody even knew what terms like or water wise, let alone xeric or even sustainable meant as they pertained to our gardens. I’ve been thrilled and impressed to watch David teach and inspire the nation–earning the 2008 American Horticultural Society’s Great American Gardener award, among other honors.

David and I share a passion for pollinator- and hummingbird-friendly plants, and so the mints, technically the Lamiaceae, the seventh-largest family of flowering plants in the world with 7,500-ish species in at least 236 genera says Kew–are often where the action is. In the latest radio podcast, we talked about his favorites—and how gardeners around the country can use them.

my mint-family q&a with david salman

Q. First, let’s just get everyone in the mint mindset—visualizing what plants in the family that they might know, besides the true mints (genus Mentha), or catmints (Nepeta).

A. One of the most popular are the Salvia, or sages. And then there are lamb’s ears (Stachys), for instance.

Q. And a lot of “herb garden” things are in there, too: basil and