I wrote a column on roses and now I am being inundated with offers for them. I am sure it has to do with AI. Why not? Artificial intelligence is all over these days, including in the garden.

One category of entities that does not seem to use AI are national big box stores. As a result, they have no conception of the cold and nasty weather here. It is one thing to tempt us with seed racks. Bare root roses are a totally different story. Ideally, a bare root rose is soaked in water for two hours or so and then planted outdoors. Obviously that is not going to happen here in March. The earliest we can expect to plant roses outdoors is mid-April.

If you purchase any, (and why not as they are cheap enough when you consider what a few roses from a florist cost these days), you need to store them someplace where they can remain dormant, but not freeze. The range of temperatures in which they will subsist is between 35 and 45 degrees. Since you probably don’t have a walk-in freezer in your house, you are going to have to find such a place in a garage or crawl space or a really cold room.

The bundles are called bare root roses for a reason; their roots are exposed. They should never dry out. Again, that’s easy when you can plant outdoors right after you buy them, but that usually can’t happen here. This means you must wrap each in newspaper, which you can keep damp. If you can’t find newsprint, you can store your plants in plastic bags, spraying into them every other day or so to keep the bare roots moist.

Here in frozen Alaska, the only proper thing to do is pot up bare root roses and keep them until we can plant them outdoors. We have too long a wait until they can be planted outdoors or heeled over in soil whilst they await a proper home. You will need a large pot or container, 10 inches in diameter or so. You will want to make sure there is ample drainage, obviously, and I am not just referring to drainage holes in the pot. Use a soil mix of compost and commercial potting soil that will drain. Do not use garden soil.

Most “experts” insist these plants should only remain potted up only for a couple of weeks. That is nonsense as you can enjoy a bare rooted plant in a pot on your deck all season long. Besides, we are only a month or so away from those squirrel-ear-sized leaves that signal the end of frosts for the season. Really! (Whew.)

Here are more hints. Do not fertilize potted up bare root plants. You should use compost once planted in the ground. Keep an eye on those cane tips and “cut away” any parts that develop fungus. If you start seeing lots of growth, reduce the temperature. If you start seeing dead tips and it is cold, increase it. Mid-April is not that far off!

Jeff’s Alaska Garden Calendar:

Alaska Botanical Garden: So much going on. There’s the Seed & Garden Exchange on Sunday, March 22 from noon-3 p.m. Bring and take leftover seeds (labeled, 3 years old or younger) and gently used garden supplies!

Anchorage Audubon Society: Hawk Watch, Spring Day activities and much more. Check it out at anchorageaudubon.org. Gardens and yards need birds.

Buy: Mycorrhizal fungi to treat seeds and potting soil and rhizobium bacteria to treat legume seeds.

Flowers to start from seed: Gladiola, hollyhock, digitalis (foxglove)

Veggies to start from seed: Celery, leeks