Flower artist revels in creating ambience

      A five-star hotel is generally striking in its first impressions, whether it is the elegantly decorated gate, the endless blue swimmingpool, the vast wooden floor, the feeling of tranquility in the air.
Or maybe it is just some fragile lilies in a perfect vase. How can a hotel be luxurious without some blossoms? It would be like a beautiful girl without a beautiful soul. I thought about this on a hot summer afternoon, when I had a chance to visit the InterContinental, a five-star hotel near the West Lake.
No, I am not going to tell you a story about a hotel. This is another story: one about flowers and a woman, who can give a hotel its soul with her exquisite creations.
The InterContinental, like other fancy hotels, impresses visitors with its luxurious appearance. But it would not have struck me as different from any other five-star hotel, if my impression in that first moment had not been those white lilies, their delicate stalks suddenly appearing in my field of vision as I entered the lobby.
The flowers were so lively that I was compelled to look at them more closely. I lowered my gaze and discovered a glass vase placed directly into a hidden alcove in the wall. The vase was placed lengthwise, so only the narrow edge was visible; this gave the flowers the appearance that the lilies had just sprouted directly out of the wall.
On a table opposite the wall, I noticed other white lilies, with their "faces" turned directly towards me as if they were smiling. With the way the flowers were arranged in a very short round vase, they lay almost on their backs evoking a feeling as if they were laying down to relax after a long time of standing up straight.
Here and there, there were dozens of glass vases full of lilies arranged in different styles, some higher up and some lower down. Each vase of lilies was arranged so naturally, it was as if they themselves had found a stylish way to show off their charm. I really wanted to talk to the person, who was capable of making flower arrangements with such a lively vitality, so I decided to seek her out.
"I believe that she will soon go even further in her career," the manager of the hotel told me when we waited to meet Dang Huong Giang, 26-year old flower arranger extraordinaire.
Like her lilies, Giang is tall, young and silent. However, as soon as our conversation approached the topic of flowers, she became quite engaged and lively.
"What brought me to my job was the seeking of those moments of happiness, when you receive good comments on your arrangements. It is similar to any sudden happiness that you can find. And I receive happiness almost every day," Giang says.
The manager said there are many visitors, who have asked to meet Giang after being impressed by her flower art. Giang is the only person responsible for dozens, sometimes up to a hundred vases of flowers in the five-star hotel. Most of the time, she spends a full eight hours a day making the arrangements. Although she has an assistant who helps her, her gift is impossible to replace.
"Even in my wedding day, I still worked at the hotel in the morning," Giang recalled, smiling.
The hobby of arranging flowers is very popular among women, but few people turn it into a career. What most women tend to do is to open a flower shop, and create bunches of flowers very similar to each other, whereas Giang’s work is consistently original and different.
Giang started exploring her life’s passion, when she was in high-school. She was the winner of a flower arrangement contest held by her school. While it seemed she had an aptitude for the work, she still decided to study economics upon high school graduation, until a sudden stroke of luck changed her life’s direction.
Five years ago Giang came to visit her brother, who worked for the Sheraton Hotel; she was asked to help arrange a flower vase for a big party. The result of her arrangement was beyond her expectations: she was given good comments by a manager there, and then asked to work for the five-star hotel. For a flower lover like her, the opportunity was too good to turn down. Giang left her economic studies for the work.
Within half of a year, Giang soon became the main flower arranger for the Sheraton Hotel. After two years, she was invited to work for the InterContinental.
"When I accepted to work at Sheraton, I just thought it is a big opportunity that I should try, but I never know that I will follow it to the bitter end. Now I know for sure. I love this job. I would feel bored, if I could deal with only some kinds of vases or some similar types of arrangements. But with the freedom to explore my ideas, I never feel bored making up new flower creations," Giang said.
While Giang now receives a lot of invitations to arrange flowers for weddings and parties, she prefers to do arrangements for the pagodas. She donates her services, since she believes that among the silence of the Buddhist Temples people may have time to realise the beauty of her flowers.
Arranging flowers for the opening ceremony of Bai Dinh, the largest Pagoda of Viet Nam, is one of Giang’s fondest memories.
"It was a Friday afternoon, when I received a call from a monk asking if I could arrange flowers for the ceremony of the pagoda on the next day. The budget for materials was VND20 million (US$1,140), which meant there were going to be a whole lot of flowers. Meanwhile, there was only me working as an arranger, and there is only one day to think out the styles and finish all the work to cover the whole pagoda," Giang recalled.
She spent half a day planning her arrangements, the other half buying materials and figuring out how to get to the temple, and then a sleepless night to fulfil her tasks.
"The opening ceremony started at 8am, and at nearly 7am I was still working. I remember that when Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung stepped into the pagoda before the opening, I was still there in my shorts and T-shirt, working. It was lucky that he just saw me and smiled," Giang said.
Flower arranging seems like light work. However, according to Giang, it requires people to be in good health, because holding bunches of flowers for a long time, washing big vases, and working through a night, all are what a flower arranger should be able to do to fulfil their work. Also, one needs to have strong and steady hands to keep all the flowers in order.
Another wedding season is approaching. For Giang, it will be another busy season. Although she is already quite sought after for her work, Giang still has bigger dreams. "I earn enough now, but I hope one day I can save enough to go abroad, to learn how others in my field are arranging flowers. For me, it is not only a job, it is a form of art I want to learn more about."