She allows flowers to express themselves

Elly Lin hosts a flower-art workshop in Park Hyatt Shanghai.[Photo by Gao Erqiang/ China Daily]

Flowers have faces. Faces show expression.

Hence, a florist's job is like a cosmetologist's.

That is, to bring out the best of their countenance.

That's the philosophy international-award-winning floral artist Elly Lin articulated to a workshop she was holding at Park Hyatt Shanghai.

The floral artist from Taipei says she learned it from her parents.

The guru of blooms was showing hotel guests how to fashion a mini Christmas tree from cypress, cinnamon and fresh flowers.

"Fragrances leave a deep impression," Lin says.

"I hope that when they encounter cinnamon's aroma later, they remember the morning we made Christmas trees together."

She chose the festival as the theme for her first showcase on the Chinese mainland.

Her class was part of the hotel's annual Master of Food and Wine Passion Week in November, when celebrity chefs, wine masters and floral artists showcase their creations.

"The idea is to gather our modern Chinese ... artisans who've mastered their crafts over a lifetime, allowing the unparalleled service and facilities of our property to complement this extraordinary culinary, artistic and lifestyle experience," the hotel's general manager, Etienne Dalancon, says.

Lin was among the first Chinese florists to win Interflora's Florist Competition in the Netherlands, when she took third place in 1997.

She was the 2010 Taipei International Flower Exposition's opening and closing ceremonies' executive planner and has taught flower-arrangement classes in Germany, Spain, Greece, the United States and Japan.

Lin also judges international florist competitions.

The art form has transformed since her parents started the company Taipei Florist in 1966, she says.

Her father and grandfather were florists. Her dad met her Japanese mom at an arrangement competition in Taiwan.

The couple opened their shop with the concept of offering a place for customers to sip tea while sitting among flowers.

"We used to use other materials like wires and ribbons to form arrangements' structures," she recalls.

"Now, we use botanical shapes to create the frames."