Daw Saw Yu Nwe's "Painting with Flowers"

FLORIST U Min Aung took first prize in a flower arranging contest held in Yangon on January 1 to celebrate Myanmar Independence Day.

U Min Aung, aged 60, won with an arrangement titled “Free Style”.

“I created the arrangement with my own hands to express the feelings of freedom and of being carefree,” he said.

He said he has entered arrangements in the annual competition since 1981 and has won prizes every year except 2004.

U Min Aung said that to win the competition, a flower arrangement must be created with a balance of eight elements: form, proportion, centre of attraction, balance, colour contrast, harmony, creativity, and relation between the title and arrangement.

“To be a good florist, one must understand which flowers are appropriate for which season, have a sense of creativity and have general knowledge about flowers,” he said.

He said he has never attended flower arranging classes, but rather taught himself the craft by reading magazines on the subject and imitating posters with photographs of natural flowers.

“I think I have a gift for flower arranging, and I have been practicing persistently for about 50 years,” U Min Aung said.

He said he was very happy to win the first prize, and urged more florists to participate in the annual competition in the future.

The second prize was awarded to Daw Saw Yu New, aged 32, for an arrangement titled “Painting with Flowers”, which used carnations and wine glasses to portray a boy proposing marriage to his girlfriend.

Daw Saw Yu Nwe, who won the first prize in 2005, said: “It doesn’t matter whether I get first or second prize – I only appreciate the trophy that I got.”

“The main reason I enter the contest every year is that is allows me to test my creative ability,” she said.

Daw Saw Yu Nwe said she started learning about flower arranging five years ago and continues to learn by reading flower magazines from Australia, the US, Japan, China and Singapore.

Last year she worked as a freelance floral teacher at the School of Home Science under the Department of Social Welfare. She now owns the Remember Me floral service and confectionery shop at Kyaukmyaung Junction.

“To be a good florist, one must have great perseverance and an interest in flowers,” said Daw Saw Yu Nwe.

Third prize went to a flower arrangement by Daw Nan Cho Aye.