Plants growing in the conservatory artificial environment shared with the visitor centre and the Ilex Cafe in the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.

Greg Salton's work place is a little bit like a goldfish bowl.

You can see what he means after spending time in the conservatory nursery at the Christchurch Botanic Gardens.

Salton is conservatory team leader at the gardens, and oversees the highly visible plant nursery alongside Ilex Cafe.

Joseph Johnson/Stuff More than 10,000 plant species are behind the glass at Christchurch Botanic Garden's Ilex Visitor Centre. We took a look behind the scenes.

The horticultural veteran gave Stuff a tour of his office, a building designed to propagate and maintain plants to replenish the conservatories across the lawn.

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"We have more than 10,000 plant species in this space, separated into three climatic zones," he said.

Joseph Johnson/Stuff Plants go through their full life cycle in the nursery, ready to be placed on show in the gardens' various conservatories.

The building is almost entirely automated, only the watering is done by hand.

"The shading is automatically controlled, as is the thermal screening at night to keep the heat in. Ventilation and heating are also automatic and all the information comes from a little weather station on the roof," he said.

From seed to full bloom, all life cycles of the plants are taken care of under Salton's watchful eye.

Joseph Johnson/Stuff Conservatory team leader Greg Salton said working in the building was "a bit like a goldfish bowl", with cafe guests only metres away at all times.

"Some of them are very old plants, some plants aren't always at their best and we only display them when they're at their best," he said.

Particularly in winter, Salton said, many of the plants go dormant, their flowers not on show or only appear for a short period.

"Some of our plants last a very long time in the conservatory and can remain in place for several years, whereas others have a shorter life cycle and last for six months, sometimes less," he said.

Conservatory staff hoped their amorphophallus titanum or corpse flower, might flower this season, but no luck. They have several in stock, including their biggest which they have had since 2008.

"Dunedin's one flowered recently and it's always a big occasion. You usually get people lined up out the door to see it," he said.

"It smells terrible, really terrible, like someone has died."

More pleasantly, Salton also grows cocoa, coffee and pineapple. In Cunningham House, banana palms are popular and often fruit multiple times a year.

And what happens to the fruits of their labour?

"Oh, the staff eat those. A slice each here and there."