3/10/25—There’s a new Perennial Plant Association website dedicated to their many years of showcasing picks for PPA Plant Of The Year, beginning in 1990. Rudbeckia ‘American Gold Rush’ won the award in 2023 for its long season of dazzling color, beautiful habit, and disease resistance (making it an excellent replacement for ‘Goldsturm’) so it’s among the cultivars profiled on the new site. Brent weighs in with his thoughts on the discovery of this award-winning rudbeckia as well.

It’s an honor for Rudbeckia ‘American Gold Rush’ to be included among the PPA Plant of the Year award recipients. This means that hundreds of respected members from across the horticultural industry voted for the plant as “a low-maintenance, pest and disease-resistant superstar that can thrive in a wide range of climates.” Also, it’s important to note that the PPA has no commercial interest in any of the plants considered; cultivars are recognized solely for their exceptional performance. PPA members are the plant experts, and Plant of the Year award winners are the plants they trust most.

Founded in 1984, the PPA is a non-profit organization of horticulture professionals from throughout the United States and Canada. Members include growers, retailers, landscape designers & contractors, educators, and other herbaceous perennial industry pros. The community is one “where passions for perennials run deep and professional camaraderie is nurtured.”

It was a great year for Intrinsic Perennial Gardens at the 2024 Penn State Flower Trials. Intrinsic’s entries had amazing performances. Eupatorium ‘Blind Date’ earned a perfect 5.0 score in its third and final year of the in-ground trials and was awarded the top Best of Show honors. ‘Blind Date’ is a native wetland species with chocolate-red foliage topped by milky white flowers in summer. The blooms are held on three-foot tall stems, and the leaves become beautifully bronze in full sun. It combines easily with other varieties in the garden.

Pycnanthemum ‘Smokey Mountain Mint’ was a big hit with visitors to the trial gardens. It also earned a perfect 5.0 score and Best of Show honors. ‘Smokey Mountain Mint’ is a hybrid incanum that has wide appeal to humans and pollinators alike. Gray foliage has a purple cast below the silver tips, and bract-like leaves surround flower clusters at the ends of the long stems on this vigorous, rhizomatous plant.

Aster ‘Thunderdome’ earned the Director’s Select award with a final overall average of 4.64 out of 5.0. ‘Thunderdome’ is a new color break for this type of aster. A hybrid, it has the purple flower of New England aster and the fragrant foliage and bushy, substantial habit of aromatic aster. Plants are large in the garden, growing three to four feet tall and up to three feet wide.

The Penn State Flower Trials’ gardens are living laboratories and garden classrooms for horticulture, plant pathology, and entomology. At The Penn State Flower Trials, judges evaluate plants during the growing season, provide information for commercial growers and gardeners, and hold an annual Field Day for a visual evaluation and tour. They also conduct tours on request. This year the Penn State Flower Trials welcomed approximately 230 visitors on Field Day, with many more joining them throughout the season.

11/01/24—Brent is the subject of One On One With… in the November/December 2024 issue of The American Gardener. He offers insightful answers for some thoughtful questions posed to him by writer Jacquelyn Franz. Among the topics they cover are the five main reasons to breed anything, what makes a plant worth patenting, and adapting to the higher demand for native plants. A pleasant, eye-opening read.

As the author notes in the introduction, in his time as the owner and president of Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, Brent has developed more than 100 new perennial varieties, over half of which are patented. His Rudbeckia ‘American Gold Rush’ was named Perennial Plant of the Year 2023 by the Perennial Plant Association (PPA).

The American Gardener is published by the non-profit American Horticultural Society (AHS), one of the most respected and longstanding member-based national gardening organizations in North America. Founded in 1922, their mission is to inspire a culture of gardening and horticultural practices that creates and sustains healthy, beautiful communities and a livable planet.

11/1/24—Brent made the cover of Greenhouse Management magazine’s November, 2024 issue. Essentially Flourishing: How Intrinsic Perennial Gardens Brings Durable Ornamentals To Market is a deep dive into Brent’s path toward breeding perennials and bringing them to market. Editorial director Kelli Rodda gets a behind-the-scenes look at what led to his discovery of some of his well-known plants, such as Sedum ‘Autumn Charm’ (Lajos) and Rudbeckia ‘American Gold Rush’. He also discusses his focus on durability and the many nuances involved in breeding for that quality, including the naturalistic garden trend, and takes us through the process of bringing a plant from an initial concept through trials.

As a plant breeder for over three decades and the second generation owner of Intrinsic Perennial Gardens, Brent was a natural choice for the cover. Over the years he’s introduced a range of perennials, grasses, and sedums based on his work with landscapers and retailers in the Chicagoland area. His plants are highly regarded in the industry and have won numerous awards, including the prestigious Perennial Plant Association (PPA) Perennial Plant of the Year 2023 for ‘American Gold Rush’.

Greenhouse Management is the leading trade publication serving wholesale greenhouse businesses. Growers depend on it for in-depth educational content month after month. Their team delivers the most up-to-date independent research, trends reports, and relevant business information. It’s published by GIE Media and is part of the GIE Media Horticulture Group, the industry’s most trusted independent voice for the latest news, research, and solutions—from genetics to the garden—to help drive success for their partners and audience.

07/01/24 — Some Intrinsic Introductions plants are late bloomers, in a good way. They appear in the Late Bloomers article in the July issue of Green Profit. A range of varieties are noted for their brilliant fall color, including reed grass Andropogon ‘Red October’, succulent Sedum ‘Autumn Charm’, and perennial Rudbeckia ‘American Gold Rush’. Take a look—it’s an interesting piece about late summer color that keeps going strong into autumn.

Launched in 1997 by Ball Publishing, Green Profit is an industry magazine focusing on crop information and consumer trend information for retailers. Their aim is to provide timely, accurate flower and plant information to garden center retailers, giving them a window into what the end consumer needs and wants.

05/01/24—Today the National Garden Bureau (NGB) mentioned Veronica ‘Seaside’ in their newsletter! It was recommended as one of their New in 2024 plants. Check out this selection in the Intrinsic Introductions catalog to see why the NGB is buzzing about it.

“Inspire. Connect. Grow.” This is the mission of the NGB, a non-profit organization that exists to educate, inspire, and motivate people to increase the use of garden seeds, plants, and products in homes, gardens, and workplaces by being the marketing arm of the gardening industry. Its members are experts in the field of horticulture and the NGB’s information comes directly from those sources.

04/23/24— Large plantings of two of Brent’s selections, Monarda ‘Midnight Oil’ and Penstemon ‘Pocahontas’, can be seen in the garden at the Rodin Museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. As part of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Rodin is one of the most visited institutions in Philadelphia. The Garden at Rodin is maintained by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS).

According to the PHS Director of Public Gardens and Landscapes, Tom Morris, they chose Penstemon ‘Pocahontas’ because they “were enamored with its stunning dark burgundy stems and elegant, tubular pink flowers” and thought it would look incredible with the other plants in their palette that are also in the pink and purple color family. Since they are planting in an urban environment and in a wet location, they “needed a plant that could tolerate extreme conditions, including alternating periods of wet soil, heat, and other unpredictable weather patterns.” They also loved the long tenure of the blooms and the “attractive clusters of stunning flowers that help us create a photo friendly area in a major public space.”

04/22/24—Allium ‘Chivette’ is featured in Emerald Coast Growers’ (ECG) weekly newsletter, and it’s the subject of their latest blog post as well! ECG supplies top-quality starter plants to growers in the US and Canada, with greenhouses in Pennsylvania and Florida. Customers can subscribe to their weekly newsletter for their current availability and the latest in plant trends. In this edition they discuss using ornamental herbs to add textural foliage, architectural interest, and fragrance to the perennial or patio garden.

“Fun, uniquely fragrant, and full of flowers” is how ECG describes ‘Chivette’, adding that it’s “just the right size for prime retail presentation.“ The plant is a mostly sterile chive with kelly green foliage all season. Initially upright but then more relaxed, blades reach 12 to 15 or more inches long. ECG noted how the ball-shaped blooms bounce above the arching leaves. “Whimsical spheres” they called them. If you get up close you’ll see that a deeper purple stripe runs down the center of each lavender petal. A dainty-looking plant that is actually tough, ‘Chivette’ is hardy down to zone 4.

04/17/24—Rudbeckia ‘Glitters Like Gold’ was recommended in a Profile segment in the most recent Perennial Plant Association (PPA) newsletter. Dennis Wentworth, Great Lakes Region Director, mentions the plant in a roundup of three native cultivars he enjoys working with at the moment. He notes ‘Glitters Like Gold’s’ three-inch blossoms along with its exceptional disease resistance, similar to that of ‘American Gold Rush’.

The PPA is a trade association composed of growers, retailers, landscape designers and contractors, educators, and others who are professionally involved in the herbaceous perennial industry. Their mission is to connect professionals, provide education, and promote perennial plants. Their Great Lakes region includes Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio.

02/27/24 — John Cottrell of Stoneleaf Nursery gave a presentation on perennials and grasses for Spring Training for Landscape Professionals, an all-day workshop held by the Illinois Landscape Contractors Association this February.

John selected three of Brent’s cultivars as part of his presentation on the landscape uses of grasses: Panicum 'Prairie Dog' (tall slender columns), Andropogon 'Red October' (bright red stems and leaves), and Festuca 'Cool As Ice' (tufts of smokey blue).