These plants have taught us to be more flexible. Traditional horticulture is based on models of beauty that have little to do with desert environments, but deserts are only harsh and forbidding where plants are lacking. A few desert willows can shade a patio and bring hummingbirds all summer, and their bare branches are sculpture in the winter landscape. Fernbush, cliffrose, creosote bush, broom dalea, rosemary, and lavender can make a patio or entryway more welcoming with their fragrances. It takes very little time and water to grow a beautiful high desert garden.
Competition is most constructive when it's internal.
Over the years, that's meant changing potting mixes until we found one that meshes with local soils well, growing most of our plants outdoors with only minimal buffering from sun and wind so that nature culls the weaklings before our customers ever see them. We admire people who live creatively, who enjoy themselves while making the world more beautiful and comfortable. New Mexico seems to be prime habitat for such folks, maybe because we haven't yet lost all our wilderness.