Project
Floral Therapeutics
The first season took me to Thái Bình, my grandmother’s hometown, where I worked alongside flower farmers and learned about their cultivation practices and traditional remedies. After a day of labor, I was exhausted and realized that very bloom carries a farmer’s blood, sweat, and tears.
I remembered my grandmother spreading herbs out to dry for home remedies and borrowed her method, experimenting with ways to preserve leftover flowers and transform them into handmade crafts for calming and restful sleep. I later pitched the idea at Young BizFest and won first prize then began selling bouquets and floral crafts to raise money for the Supportive Fund – Bright Future.
The second season drew on my own childhood experience with rare-disease treatment. I remembered the antiseptic smell of hospital corridors and the seemingly endless hours indoors, so I began bringing flowers into hospitals through arranging workshops for children with rare diseases, including at Vietnam’s International Rare Disease Day.
Flowers, whether dried or fresh, can heal. Floral Therapeutics taught me to see them from several angles from traditional knowledge, recycling, business to practical support for families facing illness.
Blog & Research
Bloomblogs
Hanoi has its own floral calendar, and I’ve always loved following it. I can usually name the flower of the month on the spot, though I’m rarely content to stop there. Why do chrysanthemums carry such different meanings across cultures? How did the Victorians turn flowers into a language of their own? And why can two shops sell the same flowers at wildly different prices? I’m thrilled to find out.
Beyond flowers, I'm also writing about my adventures in Los Angeles, my favorite rom-com, or whatever has been occupying my thoughts lately. I enjoy moving between cultural research and the small, sometimes ridiculous details of everyday life.
As someone who journals almost daily, I value the freedom of following an idea wherever it leads. Bloomlogs is now a growing collection of my curiosities, with flowers as my excuse to explore everything!
Research Assistant
"Flowers That Carry a Culture: An Overview of Vietnamese Flower Symbolism"
I almost gave my teacher a bouquet of chrysanthemums before learning that, in Vietnam, they're often associated with funerals and remembrance. Curious about how an innocent gift could carry such different meanings, I began researching Vietnamese floral symbolism through literature, historical texts, and traditional rituals. I also compared it with Victorian floriography, exploring how cultures develop and pass down their own languages of flowers. Read the whole paper here!
Florist Work
Hara Flower
At Hara Flower, I discovered that choosing flowers for someone else can be surprisingly personal. I helped customers turn their ideas into custom bouquets, experimenting with colors, arrangements, and the little details that made each gift feel special. Working behind the counter also introduced me to the business of floristry, from pricing bouquets to selling Floral Mood Boxes.
Portfolio
Lotus in Bloom
At Hara Flower, I learned to arrange bouquets like miniature gardens, layering blooms and greenery. Ikebana fascinated me with its contrasting simplicity between a few carefully placed flowers and open space. Inspired, I arranged seven green lotuses using the shin–soe–tai principle, Nageire style, and ma (negative space). With room to breathe, each stem's curve stood out majestically.