2020. A new year, a new decade and one we’re unlikely to forget in a hurry. As the storms and floods of February passed, in swept a global pandemic and all our lives were thrown upside down.

As we have all got used to social distancing, self isolation and test and trace, the society has been no exception in making changes to the way we operate and live our lives. Our store was closed for several months, we haven’t had guest speakers since the spring and our annual flower and vegetable slow was sadly cancelled.

Our summer show in August has been running for over 45 years and worldwide change aside, we couldn’t let a year pass us by.

This summer, instead of joining us in person to submit your show entries, enjoy a slice of cake or (hopefully) win something in the raffle, we hope you enjoy commemorating shows past and present, looking at photos of old memories and a look ahead at what is to come. We hope to see you all in August 2021 for that cake.

'A SHOW DAY FROM OUR GARDENERS’

The report for the Llantwit Major Flower and Vegetable Show held on 17th August 2019. 

On Saturday 17th August the Llantwit Major Horticultural Society presented it's 45th annual flower and vegetable show to the people of our town and the neighbouring villages from our new venue in the Llantonian Hall. The growing year beforehand had similarities and challenging conditions to last year, weather extremes not hugely enjoyed if you are a gardener or grower relying on consistency. The recent winds and rains were most unwelcome for our budding flower arrangers, it also caused havoc in the vegetable patches. With this in mind I have great admiration for the 37 exhibitors that created the wonderful displays.  

Our Society would like to thank the following businesses for their support and contributions. Our show sponsor Filco Supermarkets and the MADL fund. Raffle prizes were gratefully received from: Waitrose and Partners Cowbridge, Topstak, The Co-Operative Group, D.T.Browns, Pugh's Garden Village Wenvoe, Filco Supermarket Llantwit Major and LMHS members. We also thank our exhibitors, our visitors and the supporters who worked tirelessly throughout the day. All of you made the day for our community.  

There were a total of 207 exhibits, this was slightly down on last year as some of our previous exhibitors had other longstanding arrangement. However the quality more than made up for this shortfall, well done to you all for keeping the standards high. The judges were very pleased with all the exhibits on show, an expression that we all felt on walking around the displays. As you did walk about all the floral displays you could not help but to admire the beautiful colours and originality from these exhibits. Our home produce judge Mrs Sheena Sarjeant was impressed with the quality and quantity of home produce that she had to judge, must have been a veritable delight sampling the many cakes, jams, marmalade, chutneys, home brews and the fine cakes made by the children. 

Along the vegetable and fruit tables there were pears, plums, apples and onions, sweetcorn, beetroots, cabbages and cucumbers, giant runner beans and many more. We had imaginative exhibits in the children's section and from our novice vegetable growers. Ella Stark, Phoebe Latham and Oscar Thomas aged 3 touched hearts with their baking, miniature gardens, animals made from fruit and vegetables and foliage displays. For the first time we had a children's class of five different vegetables and this was won by Daniel Winther-Hartley. There were more novice items which is encouraging and the overall winner was Nichola Harler-Witts from Wick. 

Within the show were exhibitors Liz Renton, Sylvia Comben, Cath Thomas, Jarrod Windsor, Annabel and Bill Aspinall all receiving prize money. Chris Jones won Best in Show and the best flower exhibit. Tim Prior won the best vegetable exhibit with five matching onions and was awarded with the National Vegetable Societies silver medal. The Chamber of Trade plaque was awarded to Alison Leach who  also won the prestigious RHS Banksian medal for the most money won in classes 1 to 47 an outstanding achievement. The Top Vase of mixed flowering stems, a beautiful arrangement won by Janice Simmonite. Chris Jones again excelled winning trophies and cups for most points in the floral classes, decoratives and lastly overall winner in the Home produce section. Well done Chris. Elaine Brown won the D T Brown cup for most entries, 19 in all and the best fruit exhibit, fantastic. The LMHS has one award which should have a large 'E' for effort on it and it is awarded to the individual(s) who over the months have maintained an allotment in Llanmaes Road. This has been awarded to Chris Burford, congratulations. Our young exhibitors were all successful in winning prizes, large red rosettes and certificates of excellence. The LMHS cups and trophies were presented by our society chairman Bill Lee on behalf of Filco Supermarkets. 

This year the Llantwit Major Town Council re instigated the competition of 'The best kept front garden' for our community, private gardens loved by the owners and shared with us. The eventual winner after judging was Paula Kirkham, many congratulation Paula. The Mayor of Llantwit Major Councilor Robert Gant presided in presenting the Town Council Cup to her.

Tim Prior (LMHS Show Secretary)

We’ve made a few show posters in our time….

Guest speaker Ivor Mace shows us some prize winning produce from NVS championships in harrogate…

We couldn’t run our shows without our committee members, our team of volunteers and of course, the society members and the local community.

Whilst we couldn’t hold a traditional show, we asked members and the public alike to share some of their lockdown gardening projects to help celebrate the summer show and yet again, you did not let us down….

Committee members Tim and Jarrod have been busy snapping away on the allotments next to our society store - and it looks like plenty of you have been enjoying the sunshine there as well!

The humble rainbow has become something of a symbol during the pandemic, a symbol for hope and for thanks for those keeping us safe and we wanted to add our thanks through our own garden rainbows.

2020. The year our society summer show didn’t go ahead as usual, but a year we will all remember for a whole host of reasons. The year we moved online, the year we celebrated all other years, the year we look forward to next year. The year we all got more time to enjoy our gardens and the peace, pleasure, safety and joy it brings us.

We’ll see you next year.

Don’t forget to support your local horticultural society in any way that you can. Join our members with an annual membership via this form, sign up to the newsletter here, apply to volunteer to help out in the store and get caught up on all the latest news!