- 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.

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

Got it.

Yes!

- Yes!

Victory.

A lot of variables, a lot of question marks.

How's it gonna go?

How's it gonna play out?

Woo!

We did it!

My install team is amazing.

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

So come "Follow the Blooms" with us.

You never know where the adventure's headed.

- [Announcer] "Follow the Blooms" is made possible by.

(soft bright music) (soft bright music continues) - [Announcer] Slate Flosser, a daily routine that brings together woven floss, gum brushes, and tongue cleaning all in one system.

Designed for every age.

Slate Flosser, the other toothbrush.

- [Katie] We all know what paint by number is, right?

In this episode, I will be creating a flower by color, interactive display.

Instead of paint, guests will be invited to add a fresh flower to the corresponding color areas.

The plan is to visit Toby Keough, who is known for painting large, vibrant flower murals and using her custom work as the canvas to place our flowers into.

We will also head to the farm of Tracy Yang to source her gorgeous lilies.

I'm excited to stop by Seattle Wholesale Growers Market, who will be providing the rest of our local flowers needed for our design.

I'm glad to have my spunky and fun creative assistant, Lucy Sharapata, helping me create this experience for the Slow Flower Summit.

A live gathering of flower enthusiasts and professionals from around the globe.

This year, the summit takes place in the beautiful Bellevue Botanical Garden outside of Seattle, Washington.

I'll meet up with the founder of the summit, Debra Prinzing, writer, speaker, and creator of the Slow Flower Movement.

What is a slow flower, you ask?

Think of the slow food movement.

Slow flowers are local, seasonal, and sustainable.

Hello to you.

- Look at these over here.

- Oh my goodness.

- They're kind of more like fishing lines.

- Yeah!

They remind me of, you know the little water skeeters?

- Yes.

They have a lot of personality.

- [Katie] This area grows so many different varieties- - Yes.

It's crazy.

- Of flowers.

Right?

- I know.

We're really spoiled.

This is nirvana.

All those sprays- - Well, I mean, because look, you have dogwood, you have magnolia, you have hydrangea, you have all these things that, really, in other areas, you would only get a handful of those.

- Yes.

Yes - And they're all here.

- [Debra] We're so lucky.

- Debra, everywhere I go, whenever people are talking about you, they're always just saying delightful things of praise and their interactions with you are inspiring and motivating.

And it's really quite the legacy that you've built.

- [Debra] Thank you.

- So this is an international event.

It's not always here in Bellevue, right?

- Right, right.

Right.

- So tell me about the summit.

- Well, the Slow Flowers Summit, we're in our sixth year.

We have been all around the US and we usually have a two-day immersion.

- I love that.

- And it's really just a gathering of people who care about domestic flowers and floral designers and flower lovers who really wanna be sustainable and green in their practices, which includes sourcing local flowers.

And I know you do that too, so you get that.

- Yeah.

I always try to.

And the funny thing is, the minute you look, you can usually find somebody, right?

- Yeah, and if you're a gardener, you see things differently anyway.

You're like, "Oh, that's not in the commercial trade, but I know it would be great in a vase."

So it encourages people to plant more in their own gardens too, that they can maybe cut.

- Yeah, I love that.

People thinking outside of the normal things they're seeing at the grocery store.

- Yeah, the same dozen plants, cut flowers you always see.

Just, I mean, the diversity of the botanical world is so inspiring and we get that here and we wanted to bring our 150 guests to a place that would inspire them.

And we're so grateful that Bellevue Botanical Garden said yes.

- Yeah.

So tell me about this garden we're in.

- Well, the Bellevue Botanical Garden is like a jewel in the crown of many public gardens in the Pacific Northwest.

But what's so special about this place is the scale.

Everything here is an idea and a takeaway for the residential gardener and the home gardener, and it's not something that you couldn't take a lesson from and bring to your own garden.

- [Katie] And then how did you get started with Slow Flower?

- [Debra] When I discovered that domestic flowers are a very small percentage of what is available to us here in the US, 80% of the cut flowers sold in the US are imported.

- Wow.

- And as a gardener, that didn't make sense to me.

It's like, why are we importing a perishable product from two continents away on a jumbo jet and using all of that, all those resources, when I know that they can grow in my own backyard?

Or I might know a flower farmer from the farmer's market or somebody who's, you know, in my community that is growing commercially, who I want to support financially.

I started saying, consider slow flowers like slow food.

We see the slow food movement.

We are aware of the whole farm to table culinary scene and that sort of celebrating the local farmer for the food we eat.

- Right.

- Just take that parallel over to flowers.

And so I started using the term slow flowers as kind of a shorthand.

- Sure.

I'm so excited to be at the summit, be with so many people that are just as in love with flowers as you and I.

- Yes, exactly.

- Because usually my family's like, "Okay, enough flowers."

- Yeah, yeah, you can geek out here and no one will think you're weird.

- Okay.

- Yeah.

Katie, I can't wait to see what you create with your vision and have it come to life with flowers.

- Oh my goodness.

Thank you, Debra.

I can't wait to see the rest of these gardens.

You kidding me?

- Yeah, let's take a walk.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) - For this flower by color design, I'm working with this outrageous muralist.

She lives here in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

Lake town, mountain town, just gorgeous.

She's invited us up today.

She's working on a mural in her new home.

So we're gonna pop in for a visit.

There you are!

Oh!

- Hey there!

Welcome!

- How lucky am I to find Toby, right?

She is contagious.

She's larger than life.

Her work is phenomenal.

Watching her, you almost feel like you're entering this magical world.

She's painting with her soul.

You know, she's not putting pencil lines because she doesn't want to be trapped in by anything.

She just wants her creative genius to paint these flowers.

It's crazy, actually.

- Okay.

I got started.

I was just trying to do scale.

I kind of start with a larger scale so we could see how many flowers we want to put up.

I know we talked about that lisianthus, which I thought is gonna be just beautiful with the ripples and just the intricacies of the flower.

- Yes.

- Okay.

And then I got some colors that we were thinking of, those peach tones for the lisianthus and the greens and maybe like a teal background, which would kind of like reflect the sky.

- I love that.

- Okay.

- Yeah, so it's not exact sky, but it's like the feel of flowers in the sky.

- Yes.

Yes, and like the tones of it, I think if they are interactive with the flowers that you're gonna get from the growers.

- Yeah.

We want to essentially put flowers onto the art, right?

- Ooh, yes.

- So we'll have the fresh flowers.

We want it to be interactive.

- Oh, I love that idea.

I kind of picture, what if we did like drilled holes?

Once I've painted it, and then we can figure out how we can get the live flowers to, you know, interact with the painted flowers and create a big impact without distracting from both.

What do you think about that?

- That sounds fabulous.

I'm visualizing like buckets of the certain colors.

- Ooh, yes.

Okay.

- And then letting people know somehow where those go on the big design, right?

So they're just essentially placing their flower.

- Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's great.

And I think if we did like to scale, if we can get like four or five big flowers on each panel, then maybe we can have people put your holes into it where people can insert them and we could just create the petals where people are just able to put it in there.

And then I'll do several layers of paint so then when people are coming to it, they'll be able to see the depth in the flower from far away.

And then the fresh flowers, I think you'll have to go a little bit closer and it will create a lot of intrigue.

- [Katie] Yes.

(upbeat music) - Okay, well, I'm just gonna keep drawing this out, sketching it out, and then I'll lay some paints on here.

I'll keep you posted as I go through with colors and I'll get it to you so you can have it for this amazing fall flower summit.

- Summit, right?

Hurray!

- Yeah.

I hope it works.

- Yeah.

Give me a hug.

- Aw.

- So good to see you.

- Always.

- Yeah, we'll be in touch.

- Okay, sounds good.

- Thanks, Toby.

- [Toby] Bye.

Till next time.

- Yeah, Toby's style, it really resonates with this idea of seasonal flowers, right?

Because her style is freeform.

She's just taking what's there and magnifying it.

And that is really what happens in our gardens, in our farms, right?

This gorgeous thing then becomes this celebrated piece of art, really.

You step back and you just see, Mother Nature did it best.

And I think Toby really captures that.

(soft upbeat music) We are off-roading on this one.

Where are we?

We're just cruising through this field.

It's like a maze out here.

Got to find Tracy, Jarn Co and Company.

She does this amazing flower farm out here in Monroe, Washington.

She's growing the lilies that Toby painted and I think it's gonna be really phenomenal to see them together.

The fresh flowers and the painted flowers all coming together.

She's got orange and white and I just got to get out there and see this.

See these flowers growing.

- So these are snapdragons, the Potomac variety, and they are about to bloom.

- Look how big they are.

They're so tall.

- Yeah.

- Now you don't get to see these open, right?

- No.

- That's what I always feel is sad about the growers, is right when it's about to get really beautiful- - Yeah.

- They have to cut them and ship them off, right?

- Yeah, yep.

Yeah, for sure.

So like snapdragons specifically, I'll maybe see like two to three florets open, and I'm cutting them.

- And you're cutting them.

- I'm cutting them.

- Ah, okay.

Now your mom, she is a flower grower, right?

- Yes, she is.

- Yeah.

- She actually started off as a vegetable farmer.

- Okay.

- So that was actually a big factor in how she kept us fed- - Sure.

- Growing up, so.

She did, I think, not quite an acre, but maybe like a half acre.

And so that's, yeah.

As a child, my job was to harvest.

- Did you like farming when you were younger?

- Oh, no.

- No?

- Absolutely not.

I never imagined myself doing this at all, so.

- Okay.

That's pretty interesting.

And then you said your mom came over.

Tell me her story a bit.

- Yeah.

My mom is a Hmong immigrant.

She was born in Laos.

- Yeah.

- And then was forced to move to Thailand as a refugee because of the Vietnam War.

- Wow.

- And then from there, that's where she met my father.

And then shortly after, they came here to America.

You know, prior to this, I was a traveling hip-hop dancer and personal trainer.

- What!

- So it was a huge shift.

- That's awesome!

- Yeah.

- And honestly, I was kind of going through a grieving period because I loved my life.

It was fun, you know?

- Sure.

- And so all of a sudden being told like, "Hey, no, no travel, no nothing.

You got to stay put."

- Yeah.

- [Tracy] Well, some of your Asiatic lilies are ready.

Did you want to take a look at those?

- Yeah!

- Yeah.

Some bloomed in the field.

- Okay.

- So.

- [Katie] And then you've got some of the beautiful white ones in your hoop house, right?

- Yes, I do.

- How do you know when to cut them?

- I know when to cut them when I see just a little bit of color on the closed bud.

- Okay.

- That's when I'm cutting.

- So the first closed bud, a little bit of color.

- Yep.

And I'm cutting.

- And they'll still open.

- Yep.

They will still open.

And that is the best way to get lilies out to consumers and designers.

Part of the reason too is if I, you know, if I were to harvest it like this and sell it out, in transport, that bud is gonna get damaged.

So it's no good.

Yeah.

- Sure.

Okay, now tell me, you guys, you don't do pesticides, correct?

- We don't do pesticides.

None whatsoever.

Part of our jobs as farmers is to take care of the land.

But also in return, the land should also work for you as a farmer.

So that's part of why I don't spray pesticides.

I really want to build up the beneficial insects that are around here.

And it's actually, it's worked.

- Yeah?

- It's worked.

Yep.

(soft upbeat music) - I'm really excited for you to see the design.

And you know, we're gonna kind of use the lilies as dowels going through the holes to accent the painted flowers.

- [Tracy] Yeah.

Oh.

That's gonna be so cool.

- And then they'll just have both, you know?

The colors are of course inspired by your flowers.

Sent her pictures of your flowers.

- Yeah!

(laughs) - She's been painting, bringing those colors to the mural.

- Oh, wow.

- And then we're gonna add these fresh flowers.

- Oh.

- And I think it's gonna be pretty incredible.

- That sounds, yeah, that sounds amazing, I can't wait to see it.

- Toby's working on these smooth sheets of plywood.

We were thinking canvas.

We moved to plywood.

I think it's gonna be great.

We're gonna drill the holes in there.

But we need a way to frame those giant pieces, those giant panels of plywood.

So we want it to be larger than life.

Murph, the amazing carpenter, he's going to come and build this frame around the mural.

- What's happening, Katie?

- Hey!

How are you?

- It's good to see you.

- You too.

- Hey!

- Hello, what's happening?

- Nothing much.

- So we got the painting.

- You want to see this thing?

- Always.

Been waiting.

- Oh, man.

I'm so excited.

- Pretty sweet.

- Right?

- Alrighty, well- - So fun.

- [Murph] I think we're setting up right over here.

- [Katie] All right.

Awesome.

(soft acoustic music) - Let's see how this color looks.

- Oh yeah, I love this.

- This will only go around the outsides.

- Okay.

- I'm just gonna hold it here just to have a little peek.

So we'll have this like walnut colored frame.

- [Katie] Oh yeah, that's beautiful.

Okay Murph, so you're not wearing any shoes.

- Yeah.

- Tell me why you're not wearing any shoes.

- Well, as you probably know, my business is Barefoot Treehouses and our motto is bare your soul because if you're not baring your soul in the work that you do, you should probably be doing something else.

- I love that.

I love it.

- So I'm cheating here.

- If you're not baring your soul- - [Katie and Murph] In the work that you do.

- You should probably be doing something else.

And when Mother Nature.

- Two of these?

- When somebody walks around on the ground and they have Nike shoes on, how does she know who's walking on the ground?

Could be anybody.

I do keep a, I used to have a right-footed purple high top that I kept under my driver's seat because you never know when you're gonna be in a kickball game.

(Katie laughs) - Let's see.

- Oh, I like it.

- Ooh, look at that.

- Oh, wow.

- That's so pretty.

- That's amazing.

- Look at the size of this.

- Wild.

- Right?

(soft acoustic music) - All right, so here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna stand it up.

When we're lifting from this direction, it's gonna want to slide forward.

- Okay.

- So I'm gonna try to lift straight up, and you guys are gonna kind of guide it.

I have two screws on the board, so it shouldn't slide past that.

- Okay.

- When we stand it up, you guys will hold it for a while, admire its beauty, while I screw some legs on the back of it.

Sound good?

- (laughs) Nice.

- Okay, we got it?

- We got you, Murph.

- [Murph] One, two, three.

- Ooh, look at this.

- That worked out really nice.

- Oh, wow.

(birds tweeting) Oh!

Hey, Brad!

- Hi, how are you doing today?

- Look at this!

- Isn't this wonderful?

- That is wonderful.

It's like my dreams come true.

Trucks full of flowers.

- You betcha.

- Look at these.

Oh, oh, are these my cosmos?

Ooh, those are beautiful.

Ooh, these lilies.

So, tell me about the market.

How does it work?

Are these all local growers?

- The Seattle Wholesale Growers Market is a farmer-owned cooperative here in Seattle.

And we have 17 member farms here in the Northwest.

And then a lot of these flowers are from them, and then we have additional flower donors for the Slow Flower Summit this week that are American grown flowers from California.

- Okay.

Wow, so many flowers!

It's really fun.

And you can smell them.

Mm.

Slow flowers smell better, right?

- That's right.

- All right.

- Locally grown flowers are the best.

- Are you kidding me?

These are huge!

- Aren't those amazing?

Those are from Gonzalo Ojeda.

He's one of our member farms down in Ethel, Washington.

He just has phenomenal crops down there.

- That is like double the size of (indistinct).

- Yes.

That's one of the advantages of local grown flowers.

They take advantage of all the microclimates here the Northwest has to offer.

And we have farms ranging from Southern Oregon clear up to Northern Washington.

So we have a variety of seasonality when crops are produced.

So it's just wonderful.

And our farms all grow sustainably, so it's a nice way to have the flower farms on the land helping to produce gorgeous flowers like these in a local environment.

And they're not being shipped in from clear across the world where they're, you know, they lose a lot of their scent and their fragrance and they have to be harvested at such an early stage.

They just don't, they're not the same.

as you see here, in quality.

- Yeah.

It speaks for itself, right?

- Yes, indeed.

- Yeah.

That's what I've always noticed when I use local flowers.

It speaks for itself.

Like this right here, I mean.

- Oh, isn't that beautiful?

- Those colors are out of this world.

- Those are from Peterkort Roses.

They're a local grower down in Oregon.

- Mm, so good.

Thank you, Brad.

Let's get these rolling in here.

- All right.

Let's get 'em in.

- Yeah.

People are coming, so we just got to hustle.

The local flowers Brad brought are stunning and will coordinate perfectly with our flower by color chalk sections of orange, white, and pink.

Our flowers were only part of Brad's delivery.

The rest will be distributed to the many flower designers and speakers whose work will be featured here at the summit.

Okay, Lucy, I think what we're gonna have people do- - Uh-huh.

- Is they'll come over, pick their flower.

- Uh-huh.

- And then you'll grab a tube in the back.

- Oh, so I'm like the mystery lady.

- Mystery lady in the back.

- Nice.

- And then they're gonna pick flower by color, right?

So orange to orange.

- Uh-huh.

- We'll give it a little snipper.

And I'm thinking if we do like a five-inch stem.

- Uh-huh.

- Because then that will fit in the.

And then they're just gonna pop it right in there.

- Cool.

- And then when you're in the back.

- Yeah, I'll just tube it.

- [Katie] And then you'll water tube it.

- [Lucy] That's awesome.

Wow!

- Summit's officially open.

Now we just need some takers, right?

Come get your flowers.

Come on, people.

(bright upbeat music) Whatever color.

Yeah, see, there's orange, white, pink, and you just pick your hole any place that has orange.

Oh, there you go.

Yes!

Ooh.

- Woo!

- (laughs) Hooray!

That's beautiful.

- It's pretty.

- Tell me your name?

- Thank you.

My name's Joy.

- Joy.

Good to meet you, Joy.

- That's wonderful.

- Yay, and by the end of the day, it should be all filled in.

- That'll look great.

- You might have to come back.

- Woo!

Nice.

(Katie laughs) - It is incredible seeing people interact with this art piece.

They get it, hooray, right?

That's always fun when you're like, "Okay, people are getting it."

They want to get in there, they want to clip stuff, they want to put it in the hole.

You know, even some people are like, "Can I drill another hole?"

You know, everybody's into it, and it fills me up.

It feels like liquid lightning, you know?

It's just so exciting.

(bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) - Oh my gosh.

This is stunning!

I want this for my bedroom wall.

- Yes!

- It is so beautiful.

Your artists did such a great job.

And to integrate the flowers, I love it.

We've got our last flowers to go in and all our Slow Flowers members are here.

So we've got Gina, Sarah, Carolyn, Olivia, and they're all gonna help us add the last few flowers.

- Fun!

All right.

- All right.

You drilled the hole for me, right?

- Yep.

- Okay.

Great.

- There's your spot.

Three, two, one.

Last flowers!

(laughs) So good, girls.

- Thank you so much.

- Oh yeah!

- Wow.

What a beautiful thing.

- Oh yeah!

- I love it.

- Okay, come in for a picture.

- All right.

- Okay, we'll say "Slow Flowers" on three.

Three, two, one.

- [Group] Slow Flowers!

(group laughs) - Most people their whole life just look at flowers.

Very few people touch flowers.

And I think there's a lot of power in touching flowers.

So I like the idea of passing this beauty that I get to enjoy all the time off to the viewers, to the guests.

They get to hold and interact with and create art with these flowers.

As I'm walking around the garden, I see so many varieties of flowers.

They're all growing together, and they're all just stunning side by side.

That is what this journey has been like.

This art takes a village.

It's, you know, the growers and the production team and the beautiful artists we interact with, and so many people coming together to make one beautiful moment.

That's incredible.

(bright upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Follow the Blooms" is made possible by.

(soft bright music) (soft bright music continues) - [Announcer] Slate Flosser, a daily routine that brings together woven floss, gum brushes, and tongue cleaning all in one system.

Designed for every age.

Slate Flosser, the other toothbrush.

- [Katie] For more information about this and other episodes or links to follow my flower adventures on social media, visit flowersforpeople.co.

(bright upbeat music) (upbeat music)