THINGS are hotting up at a North-East botanical centre where a £2m eco-project is finally nearing completion.

Bosses at Nature's World, in Acklam, Middlesbrough, yesterday opened the doors on a two-storey greenhouse, called a hydroponicum, where exotic plants grow in tropical temperatures, without soil.

The new high-tech complex - the region's answer to the Eden project, the massive visitor attraction in Cornwall - is powered by geo-thermal energy tapped from the earth.

It is one of only a handful in the country, and has been in the pipeline for more than six years.

While the new attraction is not quite complete, Nature's World manager Stuart Goldie said it was time that the public got the chance to see what was going on inside the bizarrely-shaped futuristic building.

"Easter is a time when a lot of our regular users come to the centre and so we felt it was right to try and get it open," he said.

Visitors to the hydroponicum, which has been funded by the National Lottery's Millennium Commission, the EEC and Northumbrian Water, can expect to see a whole host of weird and wonderful plants, including home-grown cacti, bananas, pineapples and coffee, as well as more traditional house plants which are expected to thrive in the unusual conditions.

Visitors will also be able to buy their own mini-hydroponics system, and get advice on growing tropical plants, from the centre's gardeners.

The complex is partly underground and cut into a huge mound of earth - the sense of being under the earth is heightened as you enter the building along a downward slope surrounded by beautiful mosaic-covered walls.

Downstairs, in the Mediterranean zone, long troughs planted with food crops are fed nutrient-rich water and the walls are zig-zagged with strawberry plants.

"It's a very, very efficient system," said Mr Goldie.

"We have got complete control over the nutrients and if plants need more we can give them more.

"We can get amazing rates of growth using hydroponics."

Go up a level and it is like walking into a sauna.

The intention is to create a indoor tropical paradise and by summer the area will be a riot of plant life.

A mister system will also be in place to make visitors feel as though they really are in the jungle.

Head gardener Simon Cross said: "Some of the plants are imported from Holland or Germany and some we have grown ourselves.

"We are trying to use plants from around the world so we can use them very much as an educational tool.

"By summer it should look amazing."

*Nature's World, in Ladgate Lane, is open daily from 10am until 5pm. Admission cost£4 for adults, £3 concessions, £2 for children and £10 for a family ticket, which covers two adults and two children.

An official opening ceremony for the centre will take place next month.