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?

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 is headed.

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

Today's episode will take us into the woods near Snoqualmie Falls in Washington State, where old wise trees will become living foundations that grow with the people that live and play in them.

I'm delighted to have two of my kiddos with me, Ayva and Pearce.

We'll bring a fun energy to the project and are both great worker bees.

We will head out to meet Michael Murphy of Barefoot Treehouses, a professional treehouse builder who works best with, you guessed it, bare feet.

He and his team are finishing up an incredible build for clients that have become close friends.

We've been invited to adorn the treehouse with flowers for their treehouse warming party with neighbors and friends.

Before we find Murph, we must first find flowers of course!

We'll visit Chai and Chi Chamee, a local husband wife tea at SC farm.

It's nearing the end of August and summer is in full swing.

And so are the flowers.

Rows and rows of the amazing and vibrant varieties we've been waiting for.

To add just the right finishing touches to a treehouse in bloom.

Hey Chai.

Hey, hi how are you doing Katie?

Good to see you.

Yes.

You too.

I brought my kiddos today.

They're helping me out this is Pearce Well, welcome.

And Ayva.

Nice to meet you.

And then, is this your wife, Chi?

Yes.

Chi.

Come on over.

I got to meet you.

Yeah.

Great to meet you.

Nice to meet.

Yeah.

Thanks for having us.

What do you got here?

This looks amazing.

Murph sent me over.

And told me that you are the place to find all.

I tried to be the place.

Right now you see all the summer flowers blooming.

Sunflowers.

We talked about, the white cosmos.

Oh, look at those.

These are gorgeous.

Yes, yes they are.

Look how tall they are.

And you got the Mexican sunflowers.

Okay, these are the Mexican sunflowers you were telling me, that you would have them this time of year?

Those are amazing.

So pretty.

Wow.

Okay.

And these sunflowers are out of control.

Look at those.

That's why they're called sunflowers.

You know, the sun's out right now, and, they're just blooming like crazy, so they're loving it.

Yeah.

And look, all your Dahlias are on.

Oh, yeah.

Wow.

Little bit of everything.

Summertime flowers.

And a good time for everything to be alive.

I'm like, look at all of this.

This is so fun.

I could, I could just this is heaven for me.

So you guys pump out a crazy amount of flowers?

Yes.

It's incredible.

Now, you.

Have you been farming your whole life?

You know, farming, second generation, parents, they've been farming their whole life.

I'd say 30 years.

Okay.

You know, for me, actually about 15 years.

Yeah.

So you grew up farming, helping out.

Yes.

Around the flowers?

Yes.

Is it always flowers or do you farm other things?

We do vegetables too.

We try to do fruit, but, you know, it's a lost cause.

But, yeah, I mean, you do a little bit here and there.

Just try to do a little bit of everything.

The flowers are your... You seem like quite the, pro at flowers.

No.

Even though after this many years of doing it, you're still learning.

Every year, different growing season.

Yeah.

So it's still.

You just gotta adapt to the weather, too so.

Is that the.

Tell me, like, what are the pros and cons of flower farming for you?

The pros and cons.

Things you love.

Things you don't love.

You know, I, I like it when it's a tuber, so you don't have to worry about it not growing.

Okay, so starting with a tuber instead of a seed, the seeds, it's a 50/50.

I always tell people it's a toss a coin.

You never know if it's gonna, you know, sprout or not sprout.

Maybe if it does sprout we put it in the ground.

You know, you have to worry about it, you know, taking care of it.

Sure, but tubers are a sure bet.

Yeah.

Tubers, roots, you know, is a sure bet that it's gonna just take off.

And you just got to give a little dirt, little love and then do the rest.

Okay and what what do you just hate about flower farming?

You know, days like today when it's, 90 degrees and humid.

But, you know, it's it's part of farming.

Outdoor, being outdoors.

So you gotta take the good with the bad.

Sure.

Okay, so I'm not sure if Murph told you, but he builds huge tree houses.

Yes.

And he's finishing one that he's been working on for a long time.

And his clients are all bringing their friends and family to come and see it.

So we wanted to make it extra special and cover it with flowers.

Really, you know, pop.

So I'm loving these sunflowers.

I think those could be incredible.

But we also have this idea where we want to.

Because the Snoqualmie Falls are so close.

We wanted to take a cue from that and build a waterfall down the staircase.

Cascading down.

Yeah.

So do you have some white.

Like, I love these cosmos.

Yeah, we do the cosmos or, you know, plenty of that.

You know, you got the white statice.

Oh, I don't have any of that with me right now.

Oh.

Like this.

Okay, like, this is the purple statice.

Yeah, this is the purple statice So you have a bunch of this in white?

Yeah.

Okay, that would be perfect because this dries really well.

Yes.

And it's more heat tolerant.

Oh, yeah.

Heat tolerant.

So down the stairs, because I was hoping to leave it as a gift where they can enjoy the dried flowers, too.

So, yes, I love these.

Mums, those are gorgeous.

I mean, oh, man, everything's just amazing.

I think I want to kind of a little bit of everything to make it colorful and.

Yeah.

A little bit of everything.

We could do that.

We could do that.

So you've got some a little bit more picking out in the field we could do.

Okay we gotta get our hands on this.

So fun.

My kids I know love to help pick too.

So put us to work.

All right.

Chai, we would love some of that statice.

Yes.

Let's go and take a look sunflowers.

I saw some amaranth over there.

I had my eye on.

Yes.

Oh.

This is so fun.

So pretty.

Yeah look at this, guys.

So many colors of statice.

That's so fun.

Oh, look at that one.

That's so much fun.

I love that.

Do you have a flower you love one that you love in particularly, you know, I love all flowers, but especially the ones that you've cut.

And they keep growing back.

Yeah.

So you're less enamored with the look of them and more with the productivity.

Yes.

Yeah.

I don't like flowers that are one and done, because that's just a lot more work.

Yeah.

You have to keep planting.

Right?

That makes a lot of sense.

Did you always grow so many varieties?

No.

But, you know, eventually as you start farming more, you, get customers input, what they like to see grow.

Okay.

And you just keep on adding to your inventory.

Yeah.

But, yeah, eventually we started to, you know, just out of a few variety, and then now we have over a dozen variety of flowers.

Wow.

Have so many.

You know, Murph has this really great farm, and he just, you know, called me up one day and said, hey, there's this cool farm I pass all the time.

The couple's amazing.

Let's go check it out when you come.

And then I get there and it's, you know, just so many flowers.

And not just not just your everyday flowers.

Every single flower is huge and gorgeous and lush, and the colors are out of this world, you know?

And so, so fun to be there.

So fun to capture these flowers.

In the field and the ones they've cut and then Chai and Chi, husband wife team are incredible.

It's this family affair.

And they make it look like they really have it down to this.

Art meets science, right?

It just inspired me to, you know, overbuy flowers, which is, you know, never a bad thing.

But, something that's easy to do.

All right, that feels like.

Let's see you guys.

How much do we have here?

It's not enough to fill up a good bucket.

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah, I think the family is going to love this, knowing that you're so close by.

I know they're very community oriented.

Trying to be.

I think, everybody likes to support one another.

Especially in a small community.

It's time to head over to the tree house and meet Michael Murphy.

Or as his friends call him, Murph.

Murph has been climbing trees and dreaming of treehouses since his childhood.

A treehouse, he says, will enhance your imagination.

Free your spirit and ease you into a more relaxed state in touch with the natural world, his team creates special spaces for relationships to deepen with each other and the earth.

They use northwest colors and stains that allow the grain of the wood to come through and tell the story of the tree from which it came.

Murph lives by the motto that every moment is holy.

Every inch is beloved.

Murph!

Oh, hey Katie.

How you doing?

Thank you so much for coming out.

Do I have to take my shoes off?

Ive heard about this.

Only if you want to know who you are.

I do want the earth to know who I am.

She checks your footprints.

Let everybody know who we are and so, that's my... That's like my identification.

Like when I come in the forest and they want to check the I.D., I just put down my bare foot.

Oh the footprint Yeah.

So check out this table.

What do you think.

This is gorgeous.

This is, piece of maple that I salvaged from a tree job about five years ago.

Sometimes the wood waits a long time to find its forever home.

But I was real excited.

Worth the wait.

Okay.

And, yes, it's going in there.

It is, it is.

And so, you know, we spent a long time, creating this tree house for a very patient client.

Love the man.

Yeah.

And so we've had this vision for a while.

This was going to be the grandkidss tree house.

But as soon as we got up on the platform, he's like, okay, this one's mine.

And, and it went from there.

And so kind of, you know, we're not too far from Snoqualmie Falls.

Did you get a chance to see it yet?

Yes!

It's pretty sweet.

Yeah.

Gorgeous.

Yeah.

So excited to show my kids.

Well, and I always just love to incorporate the natural feelings into the tree houses.

So obviously the falls was going to be in this one.

And one of the ways that I feel the falls is through the stairs, like they come pouring out of the tree house and then splashing down onto the ground.

And so that's kind of like the dual entryway.

I love that.

I'm very fortunate that, Allen supports my whimsies when I want to go two different directions at the same time.

He's like, go for it sounds like a good idea.

That's incredible.

I'm excited to meet everybody.

On top of that, they do love this forest.

They've been here since 1991 with the intention of having a tree house.

And then also in 1991, Allen planted an oak tree from his mom's oak tree from her dad's oak tree.

And it was forever growing over the house.

And so it was going to eventually have to come down.

Yeah.

So we gave it a new life here in the tree house.

So we're going to see that oak tree reiterated everywhere.

Obviously in the bird's nest deck is the first place you see it.

Oh my goodness.

And then same with the cedar too.

That was a tree that was already in a deceased state but very vertical.

Okay.

So we just laid it down so we could rest and then we found a new life for it.

So it gets to be all the decking and all the trim and all the siding on the outside of tree.

So these trees really are part of the family's story.

Absolutely.

And that's what I like to do, is really bring that story together and invite the family to see their land and their trees in a new way.

So now these trees are living, breathing foundation of their house, moves and dances in the wind.

You really get to become a part of that.

And then people become advocates for their trees, which makes them advocates for their soil, too, because you want to keep your trees healthy, you learn to keep your ground healthy, and the next thing you know, you just have a much more involved environmental experience with the land you live on.

So you're going to deck this thing out of flowers for us.

I want to see what we got.

I do want to see what we got.

Well, come on up.

Murph loves building, inspired by the nature around him.

He is, you know, barefoot.

He's one with everything he's doing.

But he's so clever and charismatic and just delightful to be around.

Early on, with flowers realized they have a face.

They have a name.

And I do feel like I'm meeting them every time.

And Murph, I... you know, that resonated really quickly with me, that he feels like that with trees.

He feels like they want to interact a certain way.

Right?

They're... they're holding you.

They're resembling what's happening with the Earth.

The trees have been talking to me all day.

And every time I start to feel nervous or overwhelmed or, like, “What was I thinking?” “I took on too many things.” The trees just say, “It's okay.

You got this.” These amazing trees, these amazing flowers, just, you know, let it flow.

Keeping the rhythm.

And it's really incredible.

And it's like just hearing the sound of the wind in the trees.

You know, the moss is growing.

It just feels like so much energy.

This whole tree house is filled with this skilled carpentry, this gorgeous.

You know, all of the lumber has a story to it.

We're talking a house in the trees.

You've got bedrooms, you've got living space.

You know, you're going up different levels.

It is a serious pad up there.

He's got a special family he's building this one for, and we get to deck it out for the first time.

They get to see it.

It's super exciting.

Of course, it's the first time I've ever decked out a tree house.

But I hope it's not the last.

Okay.

This would be so fun to to mimic that waterfall.

Right?

And I'm thinking, like, maybe some white gorgeous flowers because it's all that bubbling white water.

Absolutely right.

Yeah.

The water just gets all charged up.

Yeah.

Totally.

So that could be really fun to have the white flowing down.

Have the energy of it.

Yes.

Cool.

Do you create, designs first you draw it out.

Do you put it on a computer or what?

How do you get this?

I always have we share with my clients that we can spend a lot of money having to painstakingly draw something out that won't look like what I'm going to build, or we can skip that part and just invest all that in the building and just let the trees and the platform reveal itself.

And I almost flatly refused to design where the windows go before the platform is built, because your view and your perception completely changes.

Yeah, I do, as a standard, put windows on the trees because I want you to never forget where you are.

And then also for me, it takes me back to being a kid at the aquarium and just seeing this whale pass by the window and some of our trees and our treehouse is four feet wide, 20ft up, wind is blowing, and you're just sitting there watching this whale, just kind of sway back and forth in the tree.

So.

I do have this vision.

Okay.

On her, Suzanne's piano flair.

Yeah.

I'm going to try to pick up a piano and have it here tomorrow, and we'll either strap it to the side of the tree house, or we could just have it up here on the deck.

And I don't know if you want the flowers pouring out of it, like music, or if you want to set it up like it's, you know, almost like a little hometown market stand and maybe some even plays a piano.

I don't know.

What.

Okay.

Is that something you do?

My son, he's here because he's an amazing pianist.

Maybe we'll get a little music tomorrow.

Okay.

Cool.

I think I love how, you inspire me to just go with it, right?

It's better not to make plans based on anything that's say or do so go with it.

We'll have a piano, we'll make some magic.

We'll have some flowers.

Okay, I've tried not to overthink this one because that would be opposite of everything that Murph does, right?

So, I knew that Murph really wanted this idea of the waterfall.

And so the statice felt really like a no brainer there with that white, lacy feeling of the water.

And then I immediately thought of those sunflowers when I saw the bird's nest, that he built around the balcony.

And he talks about the tree house holding you.

And I just loved that idea of these pops of sunflowers.

Right.

This vibrance.

And instead of overthinking any of the designs, really manipulating the flowers, I just really want to keep it more like that.

Flower market on the side of the road where everything is clustered, they're grouped together.

It's the summer abundance.

And I think that's what the Earth is saying right now.

I think that's what the tree house is saying.

Everything's saying, boom, like, this is the season to celebrate.

All right.

I think what I'm doing is just keeping it simple, as you know, just letting the flowers flow down.

Just using a little bit of twine because one that can stay here and two, I won't have to hide it.

And then I'll just keep my blocks of bundles and then I'll come back through and weave some, to fill in those spaces.

But that will make for really fast design, and I think it will look incredible.

So I like how that's just going to flow right down and be easy peasy to design.

Hooray.

All right.

Look at these beauties.

I found these drums at the thrift shop.

Dug through and I think they will make perfect planters.

Right?

Everything looks like a planter to me, so I'll see what this drum can become.

So, guys, I think this tree house family loves music.

So we're going to make, of course, the piano.

A big feature of the balcony up there.

And then I thought these drums were so cool.

So I thought, let's do planters and have these.

I know Murph made that amazing table.

It's going to be right in the entryway, so I think these will be the perfect centerpiece for that table.

We'll just fill them up and they'll be this amazing ode to music.

Ode to the family.

Hooray.

So we need the piano and the handcar to become one.

Okay, I just hope everyone no one gets hurt during this.

Just tip forward to me.

Got it?

Okay.

Way to go,guys.

This is the part where we don't want to flip over and land on me.

Let's see.

Oh, nice.

Was that the plan?

That was actually the plan on how to put it in.

Okay.

Oh, man.

Oh.

Oh.

Okay.

Okay.

Hey, Boo-boo.

All right.

Okay.

So what we're going to do is on three we're going to lift.

We're only going to go one step at a time.

One.

Two.

Three.

Yep.

Straps in the way.

Okay.

One.

Two.

Three.

There we go.

Okay.

We have to go vert and twist or spin.

I know right, I'm just like oh I can't watch it.

Like makes me so scared.

One.

Two.

Three.

Yeah.

Are you guys okay?

There's me.

Ready?

One.

Two.

Three.

Oh, God.

Okay, we'll close for two thirds up.

I got her, man or are you lifting it?

There.

One more stair.

Every stair is a victory.

Slide.

Okay.

Yeah yeah, yeah.

It's going.

Im just holding.

Yeah!

Woo!

Lets push together, man.

Oh my goodness.

The piano is in the treehouse.

Oh, that was so intense.

It's not broken.

Way to go, guys.

Woo!

It feels like the finish line for Murph and his team, but really, it's the starting line for this family right now.

They get to enjoy this place.

And I love how the flowers honor that moment.

And make it really memorable.

Something that will last, right along with the treehouse.

Here they come.

Welcome to your treehouse.

I love the sunflowers woven into the the banister.

Oh, yeah.

The sunflowers, right?

They called for it.

What we are creating is a moment, and moments can be made really incredibly special with flowers.

Oh, wow.

Look at this.

Oh, oh.

Wonderful.

What a great surprise.

I love it.

You did a good job.

How did you do these?

Dan made those today.

Those are very cool.

This is for your...

This is, so that she can sit out here in the evening time.

Yeah.

Could you ask for a better.

Where do you get the.

They fell.

They fell off the maple right here.

I was cleaning up the deck.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So we can use those.

Perfect.

Yeah.

This is phenomenal.

So gorgeous.

Well, we have family and friends coming that are very excited to see our tree house.

So let's get this celebration going.

When you give a gift, it's this desire to honor and connect with the person you're giving it to.

And the trees have given us this beautiful gift.

And now to be here with my family, and his family.

And I could not be more grateful.

And just feeling the joy of being part of this gift.

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