Michelle Tohi is an unashamed recruiter. She’s got four neighbours interested. When Heroic Gardens crowds meet up with her, she’ll try and recruit a few people then. Hell, she even pulled her recruiting techniques on me! 
Michelle is an active and passionate recruiter to her obsession with bromeliads, and she’ll get you like she got me! One sunny afternoon, Michelle took me around her garden that’s packed with bromeliads – a sub-tropical plant with stiff leaves, colourful flowers and addictive tendencies. 


Since putting this garden together five years ago, Michelle has amassed an incredible 2000 “broms”. 


“Some of the broms I have are very expensive and rare,” she says. “I joined the Bromeliads Society so I can attend their auctions and have better access to the rare ones. The Bromeliad Society holds meetings once a month and special auctions twice a year. At the events I’ll be muscling past little old ladies to get the pieces I want, but only because they push past me too!”


Being pushy has paid off, however. Michelle’s garden now boasts a huge number of extremely rare bromeliads – some of her plants are one of five or fewer in New Zealand. 
Michelle says the plants she grows are perfect for Auckland’s ever-changing, temperate climate; she refuses to buy plants that require green houses.


“I’m not into green houses so I steer clear from anything I can’t plant outside. This garden is pretty much untouched throughout winter so they need to be hardy.”


Michelle says winters don’t seem to bother her plants, as they are easy to look after and won’t get eaten by insects. “Bromeliads are really easy plants to work with,” she says. “You don’t have to fertilise them; in fact, you’re advised not to. They love sheep pellets though – they can’t get enough of them.”


Throughout our walk around the garden, Michelle and I keep getting distracted by talk of gardens with talk of dogs, thanks to her gorgeous bulldog Cleo. Cleo, sporting a fetching black and pink tutu, toddled around the garden, fending off neighbouring animals through the fence and kicking up small piles of overturned earth.


“Cleo thinks she’s a gardener,” laughs Michelle. “She’ll get into all my piles and spread them all around.”
Second-in-charge Cleo won’t be around on Heroic Gardens weekend, but Michelle’s bromeliads will, on show and on sale.


“This is my fourth and last time I’ll be doing the festival,” says Michelle. “It’s a huge amount of work – for me it takes two or three months of preparation. That’s not even taking the actual Heroic Gardens weekend into account, when you’re smiling and walking around in the sun all day. I had 100 people through in the first hour last year – it can be quite full on; you can have tour buses turn up.”


Michelle says the mix of people coming to Heroic Gardens has changed over the years, with fewer and fewer people from the community heading out.


“Last year the festival was really well visited by straight people but not a lot of gay people. I was offering free plants to people in the community and didn’t give away very many. We get a lot of gardening groups, middle-aged gardeners and groups of women coming through – some gardens see 700 or more people through their gardens.


“I don’t understand why the festival doesn’t have more lesbian gardens. It’s great that there are so many gardens involved in the festival but I think we need to see more women take part. Maybe they don’t want to show off, or maybe they don’t think we need gay festivals any more, but we do.


“We still need to make ourselves known to the wider community. I think young people think they can get married and can get a lot of the same benefits that straight couples get, but we’re not there yet. We need to keep getting out there and being visible.”


So get out and be visible! The 2012 Heroic Gardens Festival will be held on the weekend of 18-19 February. Tickets are great value at $35 each, valid for both days 10am to 6pm. Visit www.heroicgardens.org.nz for more information.