The A-listed palm houses opened in the 1800s to store and display RBGE’s vast collection of tropical plants.
Water ingress caused by historic wear and tear to the facility, combined with increasingly extreme winter weather conditions, risked the long-term health of the plants.
The refurbishment work, which forms part of the wider Biomes Project, also saw partitions removed to open up the space and the restoration of rusting metalwork.
About 40,000 plants were removed from the hothouses at the start of the project.
Some were stored in another hothouse during that time, under close monitoring by horticulturists.
A replanting project, which began in January, saw the gardens’ experts use pioneering techniques to restore the plants to their previous home.
However, some did not survive the move.
