I'm Katie Lila I make art displays out of fresh cut flowers.

Wow, this is looking so fabulous.

Flowers really are nature's art, and I love using them as my medium.

So fun.

Like these little fantasy flower worlds that people can interact with.

Oh my gosh, this is stunning.

I want this for my bedroom wall.

It's hard to be around flowers without smiling.

Wait, that is crazy.

I love looking at something and being like, oh, how can we make that into something that could be in a flower installation?

This is out of control.

I love it.

Oh my goodness.

A lot of variables.

A lot of question marks.

How's it going to go?

How's it going to play out?

Oh, you did it.

My install team is amazing.

They just jump in action and fill in all the weird requests.

So come follow the balloons with us.

You never know where the adventure's headed.

(acoustic guitar strums) Follow the Blooms on KSPS PBS is proudly supported by Skyline Flowers Wholesale.

It's early June in Spokane, Washington.

Here in the Inland Northwest.

The springtime parade is in full bloom.

Previously, as a wedding florist, it was heartbreaking to tear down the flower display that we had worked on for so many hours.

After a few short hours of the event, This is how it works.

My team builds a flower wonderland in the studio and aims to keep it fresh for two days.

Photographers book time in the studio with the flowers.

They then book their own mini sessions with several clients.

Are you following?

In the studio today, brainstorming with my friend Sierra.

I'm imagining, like, snake like fingers that are taller than a person.

covered in moss.

And then we'll ribbon ranunculus flowers through the moss.

Next up to the farms to see those ranunculus growing.

Terry at dream dirt floral.

She is a worker bee.

Oh.

Wow.

Look at these.

They are so tall.

So beautiful.

I figured there, girl, you've been working hard She is out there in her hoop house.

She's planting, she's growing, she's harvesting, not sure if these were bloom this year, my foxglove.

But I propagated all these.

These.

Oh, man.

And.

Oh, these smells so good.

everything's growing in your hoop house.

And the out here.

What's happening?

Kind of my perennial production area.

Things I'm going to put in high tunnels are high dollar real estate.

So only the really good stuff goes in there.

Okay.

Turn it tricky.

But, this will be, I think, hydrangeas and roses, possibly.

But Yarrow.

More of the peonies went down those first two rows.

Yeah.

And then on the other side will be dahlias and annuals.

Slowly.

Yeah.

And you get a lot of sun right here.

Yeah.

Full sun.

It's just it's been such a cool and windy spring out here.

I'm.

I'm behind and I'm not going to fight with it, so I'll adjust my planting plans.

I don't have plants, but, you know what?

I grow, I'll put out and.

Yeah, this year, I mean, last year, this time, we were 100 degrees.

This year.

We are barely squeaking up to the 60s right.

So we're probably three weeks.

Yeah.

I don't want it to be like last year.

Yeah.

And being wheat farmers primarily this rain and cool is is helpful.

I like that she has a respect for her flowers.

She knows they're good, and she.

She knows her, ability really well.

And her flowers prove it Which is so cool and just such a different experience to buy local flowers from the person that grew them.

if you've ever done that with food at a farmer's market, you know, this connection and this joy, joy that follows you through as you enjoy the food, right?

It's the same thing with these flowers.

They're they're on my kitchen table because I always have to keep a few, especially of Terry's flowers.

And then I just hand them out like candy for everyone to enjoy.

A lot of people don't realize that you can buy locally grown flowers, right?

They think they they just have to get them out of store.

Yeah.

What are your thoughts on that?

I'm a huge supporter of anything that keeps farms in operation and provides a livelihood for farmers and farm families.

I think the thing is the they, they haven't traveled and they're going to last a lot longer.

Terry.

These are gorgeous.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

And, I will keep you posted as we build the design.

Do.

And I know the photographers are going to be so excited.

That all the people that get to see your flowers are just going to be just feel the joy.

Well, I appreciate your support and your encouragement and enthusiasm for us local growers Yeah.

We need to see what you can do with them.

We say goodbye to Terri and head over to Sullivan Family Farms Okay, we were driving back from Dream Dirt Falls and we saw this field, so we had to stop.

Are you kidding me?

This is amazing.

This is canola flour.

It's where canola oil comes from.

It's a fairly popular dryland crop here in the Inland Northwest.

And besides that, it's so beautiful.

Hello.

Hello.

Girl.

How are you?

Good.

Good to see you.

Let's take a look at this farm stand.

Are you kidding me?

Absolutely.

What?

This is so beautiful.

I am really impressed with everything you've done.

Louise.

She has a soft spot in my heart.

Her story is amazing And I think it just that tenderness, that treading lightly with others, with their stories.

I think Louise is brilliant at that.

And it shows in her work.

Yeah.

Tell us your story.

my daughter in law, who has a nursing degree, said, I always want to be a flower farmer.

And when was that?

That was that was back in 2018. for me, this has been a journey of recovery and healing.

I had the opportunity to, remove myself from an abusive, long term relationship, and I've said I always want to share that story, to let people know that there is a next chapter.

And it gave me a beautiful chapter.

I've just been fortunat to be blessed by wonderful family, wonderful friends, and been able to come to this farm.

And we're about joy.

So it's a very different chapter.

every day at Sullivan Family Farms, we live into that motto.

“always choose joy”.

She has this fabulous farm and this fabulous team.

And she just it's it's like watching a great conductor, leading a symphony.

Right?

Just helping everybody do their part to create, this magnificent farm, which is so fun to visit and to be a part of.

Anytime you can we're here in your shop.

And tell us about these subscriptions.

It has just been most amazing to just take the concept of getting flowers on a consistent basis to customers.

And we talked about that.

We're about bringing joy.

So how fun is it that on a weekly basis or every other week that they can come to our farm stand and they get a jar.

So again, our mason jars and, and whatever seasonal and blooming that week.

and Grace does a great job.

So Grace, has been here for a couple of years now, and was a key person and came from a flower family, and my gifting is in growing flowers and Grace has a great gift in designing.

so on, either weekly or every other week They're able to get Sullivan Family Farms flowers.

I would say Katie that like one of the highs in flower farming was in not knowing what I didn't know.

So no one told me that most flower farmers buy plugs and that they don't start things from seeds.

And I just seen my mom starting everything from seed germinating on paper towels.

And so it was just remarkable to find out that people were like, “You started and grew all of these things?” And so, yeah, that was a really proud moment to be able to say it went from the seed packet to the vase and all that happened here.

And it was really probably a little bit naivete on my part.

That created that.

When you ask for hard spots, yeah, sometimes you think about how beautiful things are on social media and, and the beautiful product that goes out.

And last Saturday we had the biggest hail that we've ever had in Washington state and lost several thousand tulips.

So I think it's the joys that Mother Nature brings to us, and that we are able to offer these plants and flowers everything they need to flourish, and the heartache that comes with the early freeze or late frost.

And, and those are back to back, right?

The joys and sorrows.

Yes, they keep coming back to back.

Right.

And so I think it's trying to appreciate last summer was super dry and it was super hot.

And the fear of fire, we've had fire very close within, just a couple hundred feet of our farm stand.

But certain flowers loved it.

And kind of being able to embrace that.

There were different flowers that flourished last year and this spring because it's been cool.

We've had a longer season for daffodils and for tulips.

So it is finding that little gem that comes from some of the heart.

on a funny end would be the fact that I used to have to, on a work mission, go back with my mom to my grandma's in Massachusetts and dig dahlias.

And I said, oh, I will never have these.

They are way too much work.

I I am not.

I'm raising perennials.

I'm not digging something up.

And we probably have a thousand that we're growing this year.

So never say never.

I'm going to count these up because I want them all when I saw these farm grown flowers, it just filled me with joy, right?

I'm so excited to bring these into the design and this little ugly sketch in my notebook.

It is now becoming so real Thank you.

Thank you for having me.

I always love to see you.

And I think what you've built is amazing.

And I'm so proud of you.

Bye, Louise.

It's harvest and delivery day.

Hooray!

Terry and I take a hack at her beautiful crabapple tree.

I'm amazed just how much I can cram into my car.

And Sullivan Family Farms makes a gorgeous delivery.

All right.

What a fantastic day at the farm.

I am thrilled with the flowers that we harvested.

Now we're in downtown Spokane, Washington, at the now now creative space, and we're ready to build this thing.

So come on in.

I want you to meet my fabulous and scrappy team.

Hey, Kati.

How's everybody?

So good.

Good, good.

I know we're ready.

Okay.

I'm super excited.

Yes, we've had it in our minds.

Right.

So we're going to unload the cars.

Drag everything in.

Then we'll build our finger octopus mossy thing.

just to see them and know that this is really happening.

That I have a team that's going to make it happen is just more than I can ask for.

we'll also, make the crabapple woods behind there.

So there'll be, both of those going on.

We'll have two teams.

Who wants to be team Mossy Fingers?

Me.

Okay.

Awesome.

Sierra and Ruby.

Hey, I'm Sierra.

I am a graphic designer, but I love all things design, so I love working with flowers.

It's a great way to get away from the computer.

And my grandma is a floral designer, so get to learn a little bit more about what she does, which is fun.

Hi, I'm Ruby May.

I didn't have too much experience with flowers before I met Katie.

it's been great working with her.

I've learned a lot.

And then you two will be Crabapple Woods with me.

Ava's team over.

All right.

Fern, the flower master.

Katy Lyra is my mother, and we make a good team because she is an artist and she has an artist brain.

And I'm the organized brain, so it makes a good team.

I'm Ava Weideuer.I'm so glad My first job is working with flowers instead of burgers at a burger joint.

here we go.

Go, team.

Ready?

Follow the blooms.

On three.

Three.

Two.

One.

Follow the birds.

Okay, so this is the Seminole floral delivery system, and, it's really cool because it's got these, as you can see, these holes in it.

Right?

And it comes in just these little grids, so you can divide it in lots of different ways, kind of like Legos.

And then, it has all these little pipes and it's to put in the back of your car.

So then you can, sit these in like this, and you can put a base in the middle so it doesn't wobble around when you're trying to deliver flowers.

But I found that it's really great base for, installations.

So I can build the grid however I want.

And today, we're doing kind of a a curved C shape design, and I wanted it to be about six feet wide.

And then I can put these little pipe pieces wherever I want those two.

So, you know, kind of like what?

Like a light brite system, right?

Where you can stick them in wherever you want, and then I can build on those.

So these are our snake burritos, it's a just a thick, probably quarter inch cable that's malleable, but also holds its shape.

crafted it into that kind of long shape and then put some roughage in there.

And then just wrapped it in chicken wire and, popped those, pipes on the bottom.

Ready to stick in there.

Do you.

What do you think?

Yeah, like, just stick straight up.

No, no, I want them to, like, I want them to dance.

Right.

I'm thinking with.

Oh!

Dang it.

Oh, well, I don't know.

Oh, no, this is real.

Little fun.

Minor flood It is a flood disaster in the studio for the second time, by the way.

And it's concrete, right?

So, I mean, it just spreads.

my sweet Ava fern is, you know, Cinderella in the back corner, just plunging at this water.

Yeah.

Happy moss.

This is like one of those type flower purses.

Yeah.

You're like, I don't see it.

I don't see it.

All I see is a menace to my roof.

Right there.

I will pay you for your roof, Moss.

Send that out there.

Put that out there into the world.

I'll pay you for your roof moss.

So I buy insane amounts of moss.

I bring it here and we just have no way to get the moss on.

I have all these little picks that I'm thinking will work.

They're not working.

I'm at a loss and kind of feel like crying because we can't build this without the moss.

not really working is it.

Not gripping.

So Brainstorm.

Team brainstorm.

Should we lay them down first?

Maybe you could take, you know, the green wire.

You could.

Somebody could hold it off.

Yeah, I could wrap it around because you don't really see the wire too much.

And then Ruby Champion comes in with this brilliant idea to mummy wrap these, finger snakes.

With the moss.

So brilliant.

so you're saying, what is that?

What's it like?

Take this and then you take the wire.

Like wrap it and then you take the thingies and like put them over so you can't see it.

Yeah.

You could like, you could just lay it all down and then someone can hold it and you can just like mummy it.

So that works.

Ruby, for the win.

(guitar strumming) (laughing) I turn my back for one second.

Oh, well, now that it's down, do you want to capture it going?

Oh!

Dang it.

Oh, okay.

No.

On the design.

This is really bad.

The moss arms are literally flopping to the floor, and I don't have any way to hold them up.

They're too heavy.

Which seems like I probably should have thought of that, but I just really thought they would hold.

Okay.

Yes, I'm actually tempted.

I'm like, maybe I'll just go to Home Depot in the morning It's 11 p.m..

I'm exhausted.

Just pulling in a lot of snack foods today.

Water bucket flooding the studio.

A large part of the design.

Flopping over, rearranging the flowers Everybody worked their tails off.

It's going to be great.

I'm going to go get a little shut eye.

Okay.

Brilliantly.

Ace hardware opened early, I jet down there go in looking for metal rods and find these wooden dowels.

And these wooden dowels are perfect.

Magically they do.

They fit.

Exactly.

Perfect.

And what I thought was going to take an hour is now taking five minutes.

The work is finally done.

Two days of work for ready to play.

We have our first photographer here.

She's here with her clients, and I'm just really excited to get everybody in here and show them what we've made.

I am so excited to work with Katie.

She just has this authentic love for flowers and for all things nature.

She creates these masterpieces that are so genuine and so unique.

They're just brilliant.

But the thing that I love most about Katie is that she has this ability to inspire and to facilitate this authenticity in individuals, and she tries to pull it out of them.

And I think that is awesome.

Here we go.

Oh!

Hey, guys.

Oh, my God, you look great.

I'm seeing.

see you.

Hey, beautiful.

Oh, Come in, come explore, Look at these.

All the I love this idea of the fresh flower mini sessions because it's half the battle.

The backdrop.

So where are you when a client comes in?

I can just focus directly on the client and not have to worry about anything.

And it's beautiful.

Sharing my work.

Feels nothing but rewarding.

Thanks for flowering with us.

What a grand time it's been to create with ranunculus, anemone and crabapple branches harvested right here in the beautiful Inland Northwest.

my big question is, what else can we do with flowers?

How can we get them into our lives more often?

Seek them out.

Hike where the wild flowers are blooming.

Snip some from your yard.

Bring them inside.

Hey!

Even from your neighbor's yard.

I'll never tell.

Flowers help us gain a sense of place and a sense of connection.

Excited to keep exploring as we follow the blooms.

See you soon.

(acoustic guitar strums) Follow the Blooms on KSPS PBS is proudly supported by Skyline Flowers Wholesale.