Color of summer

The pot of gold at the end of Miah Hamilton's rainbow takes plenty of work to get to -- about six months' work, to be exact.

The rainbow in Hamilton's yard, like many other Valley residents', comes in the form of flowers. There's the blue, the yellow, the violet, the red -- but not in arcs above the skyline, rather, in petunias, in marigolds, in pansies.

With a short summer in Alaska, Hamilton is like many Valley gardeners in trying to cram as many flowers as possible into a short period of time.

"I like that when you drive up, you say, 'Wow, look at all those colors,'" Hamilton said Sunday night. "Yeah, it's a lot of work, but what else am I going to do? I use the winter to plan out my summers."

Many Valley gardeners will readily admit the reason they flock to flowers is to provide a much-needed explosion of color to the landscape. And whether it be a deep orange marigold or a bright blue lobelia, the color is what keeps them planting, year after year.

"If I had to pick a favorite, it'd be lobelia because they add so much color up against my house," said Palmer gardener Frances Granger. "I plant a lot of lobelia every year."

Hamilton admits that her favorite flowers are irises -- "but don't tell them that," she said. She likes them because they are early bloomers, she said, as well as because they do well without a lot of attention.

"I work full-time and by the time I get home and get dinner ready for everyone, I don't have a lot of time for my flowers," Hamilton said. "It you give them light and give them water every day, they give you their color. That's my kind of flower."

While some gardeners may try for a specific theme and plant only certain colors, others plant freely, trying to make the most out of the time they have in the garden.

"I buy flats [already-planted seeds] so I have an idea of what I want, color-wise, before I plant them," Wasilla's Brian Cappor said. "I don't have the time to plant, so for me it's as easy as going to Landscape Supply and picking out what I want."

Granger said she tries to include as many different species as possible, in as many different colors, but she also tries to stick to a basic scheme every year.

"This year, I went with a lot of blues and purples," Granger said. "Last year I was pretty heavy on pinks."

No matter what the colors, the flowers lend to a brighter Valley.

"My husband and I will drive around neighborhoods for hours on the weekends, just looking at what other people have done and how nice their places look," Hamilton said. "And I admit, I steal their ideas, too."