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Great Spring Perennial Combinations

It's peony time and iris time of year and they dominate the landscape. But there are other great options too, for spring blooming shrubs and perennials.

Here's a sweet rose called Rosa glauca rubifolia. What a fancy name for a sweet little rose! It's known mostly for its burgundy colored foliage and stems, but it also has these little pink flowers, this time of year. It's a beautiful plant when you combine it with some bright colored airy flowers like these buttercups! These little buttercups just hang it amongst the rose foliage and add a nice little touch of brightness against the beautiful burgundy background.

There are other plants that you can grow this time of year too, that will look equally beautiful! Baptisia is one of my favorite ones. This perennial grows 3 to 4 feet tall, and can get white, blue, purple, or even yellow colored flowers depending on the variety. It's also a legume and fixes nitrogen, so it doesn't need much fertilizer. It looks beautiful next to the lambs ears with their silvery foliage and blue flower stalks that are starting to come up now. It's a nice contrast!

Also my favorite part shade plant is Heuchera or coral bells. There are lots of different foliage colors of this perennial out there. These two look really nice right next to a mint plant. You have a lime green mint color mixed in with the burnt orange color of the Heuchera, a real nice color combination. So look beyond the peonies and iris this time of year for some other great combination options.

By Charlie Nardozzi