"Follow the Blooms," an eight-episode series that takes viewers behind the scenes at Inland Northwest flower farms and the floral installations made from their harvests, has started streaming nationally on PBS, with a second season already in production.

But for Spokane floral designer Katie Lila, creator and host of "Follow the Blooms," the road to finding a home for her brainchild took several turns.

Three years ago, Lila was in the midst of completing the first season of "Follow the Blooms" for a budding new streaming platform prioritizing “all things floral,” dubbed BloomTV.

Halfway through filming, however, BloomTV lost its funding and shut down, leaving Lila with a choice: shelve the project or figure out how to finish and distribute it herself.

“To the great credit of my husband, we decided to become producers and figure out how to do that and take ownership of the show and finished all the filming,” Lila says. “We had a thing, but we didn’t know how to put it out into the world. We spent the next year knocking on every door we could think of.”

Lila first approached Spokane-based KSPS PBS, which serves the Inland Northwest and parts of Canada, but she didn’t hear from them right away. About 1 1/2 years later, KSPS Executive Producer and Production Manager Jim Zimmer reached out, and Lila began working with him to distribute the show regionally.

After a successful run at KSPS, the station partnered with Lila to present "Follow the Blooms" to national public television distributor American Public Television. The first season is now available in markets covering an estimated 70% of U.S. PBS viewers, airing in every major city, Lila says. 

“That was a big, giant journey of learning and figuring out how on earth to do that,” says Lila, who is currently filming a second season of the program.  

The experience has transformed Lila from a floral designer with a television concept to a producer responsible for every aspect of "Follow the Blooms." In addition to overseeing the creative direction of the series, Lila handles fundraising, marketing, sponsorships, and distribution while maintaining editorial control over the stories the show tells. 

Lila leads a small production team that includes Director of Photography and Editor Kelly Ditto, owner of Spokane-based DittoFilm Media LLC. The team works with a Colorado-based producer and videographer for larger travel shoots. A part-time business assistant helps manage operations, and Lila's family and friends often step in as production assistants.

Although PBS distributes the series nationally, it doesn’t finance production. Instead, Lila funds the show through underwriting — PBS’s version of sponsorships — which allows businesses and organizations to purchase brief acknowledgement spots that air before and after an episode, Lila says. 

National underwriters of Season 1 include the American Public Gardens Association and Spokane-based Slate Dental Inc. Skyline Flowers Spokane and Spokane-based AgWest Farm Credit both supported the show’s regional run on KSPS PBS. 

As production on Season 2 continues, Lila says she’s looking for additional companies interested in reaching a national PBS audience through underwriting opportunities.

Each 30-minute episode follows Lila as she creates elaborate floral installations while exploring the stories behind the people and places connected to them. Throughout the first season, Spokane is featured prominently. In one episode, Lila and her team install a “river of dahlias” dotting the staircase railing at Spokane Public Library's downtown branch. In another, they partnered with creative studio The Now Now Space LLC, in downtown Spokane, to build a “flower wonderland” offering guests photo shoots over several days.

The second season expands to areas beyond the Inland Northwest. While flower installations remain at the heart of each episode, Lila is widening the show’s focus to explore the people, traditions, and industries behind flowers around the world. Planned episodes include a visit to a Virginia farm, a behind-the-scenes look at the floral displays at the Grammy Awards, and an exploration of the thousands of flowers donated each Memorial Day to Arlington National Cemetery. That episode will trace the flowers’ journey from farms in South America to volunteers who place bouquets on graves to honor fallen service members.

Spokane will still appear in the second season. Lila plans to film at the Spokane County Interstate Fair, where she and her team will create a floral installation for the fair’s annual Sensory Day, touted as an inclusive and calming experience for individuals with sensory sensitivities.

“They’re going to bring the noise down and bring the lights down and make it this really lovely fair experience that sometimes they wouldn’t be able to enjoy,” Lila says of the fair installation.

"Follow the Blooms" is just one part of a larger vision, explains Lila. 

In 2019, Lila founded Flowers for People LLC, a flower company focused on encouraging people to interact with flowers through workshops and artful installations. Now, Lila is taking the Flowers for People brand to help extend the show’s mission beyond television.

While the series remains the centerpiece, Lila says she is building multiple revenue streams to support both the show's production and its long-term sustainability. In addition to creating digital content tied to each episode that can be sponsored independently, she is preparing to launch a branded Flowers for People bouquet line in regional grocery stores.

Each bouquet will carry the Flowers for People name and feature a QR code linking customers to flower care tips, design ideas, and educational content. A portion of each sale also will be directed to a nonprofit organization selected by the grocery store’s local community.

Lila also is expanding into public speaking, delivering presentations on creativity, pursuing ambitious ideas, and the ways in which flowers can foster human connection. Speaking engagements generate another source of income, while also reinforcing the broader message behind Flowers for People: encouraging people to find beauty, joy, and community through nature.

Looking back on the last three years, Lila says navigating the show’s winding path has taught her more than just how to produce a television series. She’s learned the importance of trusting the people around her, allowing ideas to grow at their own pace, and accepting that success rarely follows a straight line.

As someone who describes herself as a “big vision person,” Lila says she once expected "Follow the Blooms" to take off much faster. Instead, she has embraced the slower pace of building something long lasting.

“You have to be small before you can be big,” Lila says. “You have to start as a seed. … It’s okay to be a seed, then be a sprout, then have one leaf. Even if it takes a while to bloom.”