A unique blend of plants offering unusual shapes and textures help contribute to the contemporary feel of the HGTV Dream Home landscape. The first rule of designing in a setting like this, says landscape designer Tom Holmes, is "don't mess up the view."

Holmes chose plants that will provide this dreamy landscape with year-round form. Here, colorful plantings surround the master bedroom. In the high-desert of Sandia Park, "greenery" in the winter depends on native conifers -- pines, junipers and cedars. Flowering specimens here include crabapple, hawthorne, cotoneaster, pussywillow and , a form of yucca whose lower leaves curve downward.

A contemporary art piece with a Southwest theme graces the yard of HGTV Dream Home 2010.

A rock monolith serves as an anchor and focal point. When viewed from inside the home, the rock acquires a pinkish hue, matching the pinks and purples of the mountains at sunset.

The guest cottage boasts its own private patio, complete with gas fireplace.

A weeping form of Arizona cypress frames the front door. Throughout the HGTV Dream Home landscape, weeping and standard forms of the same species serve to play off each other.

Landscape designer Tom Holmes, of Altered Estates, selected the gravel groundcover, mined from a nearby quarry, for its landscape-brightening color that complements the home and its trim.