Engage Mike Bone in a conversation about plants, and you'll soon be exposed to the science he knows and the passion he holds about growing things.

As senior horticulturist and propagator at the Denver Botanic Gardens, He is leading a complex plant production operation seldom observed by the thousands of visitors to the garden's ever-changing surroundings.

Bone, (pronounced with a long 'o') who sports a luxuriant red beard and tattoos, says he went from being an unemployed millwright to helping out at a local landscape company's greenhouse, and when he was asked to come to the Botanic Gardens about six years ago, he jumped at the chance.

"And I just sort of fell in love with the growing of plants -- I'd grown up helping my grandfather on his farm, growing cotton and corn in the panhandle of Texas, so summers, as a kid, I'd get shipped down there."

He's equally happy, he says, working at his potting bench as well as coordinating the complex production cycle that has plants being grown on different schedules for the garden's displays and myriad other customers.

"I work with a hugely diverse group of plants," Bone says, "everything from tropics to alpine to desert to aquatics and everything in between. Technically, my job is to grow plants for collections and displays."

"This actually fits me very well because what I do here -- it's not a job," Bone contends. "It's like a serial killer or a baseball card collector -- they have to do it. It's an obsession; it's just engrained so into their nature, that's what they do. I still go home at night (in Thornton) and propagate and grow plants and divide things and germinate. It's engrained in my being -- not something I show up to work to do."

He also gives much credit to the staff and volunteers.

"I oversee a lot of this, but I definitely don't do it by myself. I've got an army of volunteers and seasonal help and staff help."

In a propagation greenhouse, Bone tends to a variety of fledgling plants, from small grasses to diminutive trees -- even one rare variety of tree grown in Lebanon -- with light, moisture and humidity controls. And there are a number of other busy greenhouses to tend.

"I do all the production," he says. "Others specialize in particular plant areas. My obsession is to find them and how to make more of them."

His other love, besides his wife, Emily, is a 2004 Harley Road King motorcycle.

Then there's the poster. Created as a kind of joke prior to a Botanic Gardens plant sale, it portrays the horticulturist hidden behind a huge leaf, apparently sans clothing.

He's pictured saying, "Our plants are guaranteed to grow -- or die trying."

Bone is unabashed about his love for working where he does: "I feel like I get to be a part of something bigger than me. I get to give back to the community. I get to convey the message that plants are important in all aspects of our daily lives. There is a real relevance for humankind in creating a place for art and science to blend together. It is a bit of a utopia at times, other times it is a purgatorio."

For more on the Denver Botanic Gardens, its programs, displays and special events, go to botanicgardens.org.