Maria von Brincken, principal of Maria von Brincken Landscape Garden Design, is an award-winning certified designer (APLD and LI) celebrating over 30 years in professional practice.  Maria specializes in landscape plans, educational lectures and workshops, and coaching to create beautiful spaces and colorful flower gardens designed for you.

  • Her goal is to stimulate, expand ideas, and techniques that you can use in your landscapes & gardens.
  • Maria offers color slide lectures using images from her design and of gardens visited throughout the US and abroad.
  • Garden clubs and conferences—from Massachusetts Horticultural Society, Fine Gardening Regional Conference, Blythewood, ELA, Master Gardeners to Sudbury Garden Club have offered her lectures and workshops.
  • Her lectures reflect over 30 years of coaching, design, and horticultural success creating beautiful flowering gardens.
  • Detailed and descriptive handouts accompany all lectures.

“Many thanks for an inspiring talk to our Garden Club last Tuesday. Your photos were outstanding and I especially like the useful information on color theory. Your illustrations demonstrated the concepts so clearly and made the theory understandable. It’s a process that I will use more thoughtfully as I select plants in the future. Your detailed handouts are an added benefit.”

Sandra C. April 11, 2017

Virtual Zoom or In-Person Lectures

Color Gardens: Beautiful Perennial Combinations from Spring thru Frost

You’ll learn Color Pairing, the first step to create a stunning combination for both “wilder” and “tamer” styles.  Graphics introduce color theory and texture as design tools easy to use to create your own beautiful combinations in seasonal sequence. Image examples shown for both sunny and shady flower combinations blooming from spring through fall you can use right away. Or inspire you to create your own. Examples from gardens in New England, the US, and abroad.

Pollinating Meadow Gardens: Lay-out & Choice Plants & Combinations

Plants that attract beneficial pollinators help our bird populations feed their young. This lecture explores how to “wild your perennial borders” using native plants in an ornamental way to create dynamic, stunning meadow gardens. Lay-out techniques echoing the way plants communities intermingle will make your flowering planned meadow garden looks cohesive and natural. Choice plants will be highlighted in blooming sequence and listed in your hand-out.

Expand Your Bloom with Flowering Trees and Shrubs

Looking to “rewild” your gardens? Native shrubs and trees are showcased. Flowering trees and shrubs distinguish older landscapes from modern ones. While some people plant spring flowering, few plant summer flowering. Many are fragrant, native, and need little care. They add beauty and special value to your land- scape. This lecture also includes information about combining native flowering/berrying plants in a shrub border/wildlife corridor to attract birds, butterflies.

Classic Vertical Gardening: Vines that Flower Up and Around

Highlights ornamental vines– perennial, annual, and edible that add texture, flower, berry, fragrance, and sometimes fruit. Slides show examples of vertical gardening and their structures from historic gardens, today’s gardens, and choice examples of individual plants that grow well in our area. A new section features the recent trend of living “green walls”. Maria’s lectures aim to stimulate and expand ideas and design solutions for the home gardener to use in their own gardens.

Meant for Each Other: My Favorite Foliage Combinations

Maria photographed this collection of color foliage combinations throughout the seasons as she visited gardens she designed—both her own and her clients.  The talk illustrates the journey marked by gates and paths that invite you into the

Creating Winter Gardens & Beyond: Using the Art of Lay-out Design

You’ll learn lay-out techniques that work in All Seasons. How to make the winter garden that are the bones of the 4 season landscape. Learn out to create winter gardens that delight and inspire. Images from Maria’s client’s gardens and public gardens of Tower Hill’s Winter Garden, Mass Hort’s Bressingham Garden,  Decordova Museum  & the author’s designs to inspire. Diagrams of the winter plantings, and the nuts & bolts of drifts and masses show you how..

Create Color Waves of Perennial Combinations from Spring thru Frost Workshop

Learn how to create both sunny and shady border combinations from spring through fall. Color theory and texture are introduced as design tools to create your own beautiful winning combinations. Participants will create a personal garden color palette  and begin the process to map out bloom succession combinations from spring to fall.

Lecture Availability

Book lectures from mid to late October though the beginning of April.

In-person lectures are limited to the towns surrounding Sudbury, MA. Consider Zoom lectures during January and February when the weather is iffy for travel and members may be away. Consider meeting in small groups using a large flat screen smart TV to attend my lecture.

Lecture Fees

  • Small Group: (Garden Clubs) $400 in person (Virtual Zoom $375) 
  • Conferences & Symposium    $850
  • All fees plus travel expenses (mileage, lodging, meals), handout costs (based on number of projected attendees) are payable on lecture date.

Workshop Fees

  • Small Group $475 (Zoom Lecture price varies by Group Size),
  • Conferences & Symposium $975.
  • All fees plus travel expenses (mileage, lodging, meals), handout costs (based on number of projected attendees) are payable on lecture date.

Reserve your Lecture or Workshop Date

Email MvonBrinckenLGD@gmail.com to reserve your lecture!