Our annual flower and vegetable show in mid August is a chance for society members and non members alike to show off their growing, baking and gardening skills and a chance for us all to come together to celebrate the gardening year, and the society. Classes include traditional competitions including vegetables and floral arrangements, as well as home baking, preserves and a children’s class which has seen some stiff competition in recent years. We also run a competition for the best kept allotment which our judges thoroughly enjoy invigilating in the sunshine and of course, we have plenty of tea and cake to be enjoyed by visitors on the day, and raffle prizes to be won. Our 2020 and 2021 shows were celebrated virtually due to the Coronavirus pandemic and you can revisit that via the tab above.

Everyone is welcome to take part in the summer show and volunteers are always needed and very appreciated. If you’d like to register your interest to help out, please contact Show Secretary Tim Prior on 01446 794421.

LMHS 49th ANNUAL FLOWER & VEGETABLE SHOW 2025 REPORT. 

Well here we are again, another show and another report, I was so pleased on Saturday to wake up to what turned out to be a glorious day of weather. It was not too hot and there was a very pleasant breeze, it was warm in the hall and not just because of the weather! Before I continue, I would like to say thank you to all our exhibitors and visitors who supported us on the day, and to our committee and some society members who set up the evening before and assisted on the day as well. 

We still cannot seem to have a normal summer, can we! It seems this year that every summer month we were told we are entering another heatwave, and this has made life in the garden and on the allotments particularly challenging. What plans we had to grow, and show, are in turmoil, but what you provided for our exhibit tables just shows how resilient you all have been. Well done. 

Our exhibitors started to arrive at 8.45am, a trickle at first and then a veritable queue formed up at the registration table to be signed in by Sylvia Comben and Liz Renton our registrars. Ladies, you did a fantastic job, 51 exhibitors who bought in 267 exhibits, wonderful. 

Our show was judged again this year by our highly learned judges of the National Vegetable Society Denis Barry (vegetables), Keith Sweetzer (flowers, plants, and children’s section), and finally our very own Jayne Thomas (home produce). 

So, welcome to our show, yes come right in and oh! Do not forget the £1 on the door please, thank you. Well you have entered the transformed Llantonian Hall, who would think that we have all this space available, and look at the big, long tables running down the middle. This is actually the stage you usually see. Anyway, a quick wave to Ros and Dawn serving the refreshments and turn right. Vegetables, vegetables everywhere. Big red spuds and 16-inch-long runner beans, dwarf beans but no cabbages and no cauliflowers either, perhaps next year! There were lots of red and white onions grown and carefully tied. We had two dishes of shallots; there were none last year. Turn left, that’s it and here we have carrots stump and long on the benches, and tomatoes of various size and colour were in good numbers as were the beetroots and cucumbers, there were no peas or lettuce this year, shame as there were some on the allotment yesterday!! Two genuinely nice leeks from Alison Leach and onto the various collections of vegetables, for some reason these classes are not readily subscribed to, always the optimist, next year! It was obvious that it was a good year for fruit, a lot of apples and plums and they looked really good. Then we arrived at the giants, well there was not an Onion there! Annette Smith entered a nice marrow, there were three long beans and a weaponized cucumber, which was a whopper! Turning left and we have the Top Trays with 3 entries from Alison, Mary and Andrew Lewis, difficult class but all very well presented, and you all deserved first for your efforts, well done. Next the novice section with only seven entries in the nine classes, the society should be able to do better here, I am grateful for your first journey into showing vegetables and cut flowers. Overall the vegetable exhibits were particularly good, and our judge fell in love with the shallots from Amy Pike who incidentally put up an incredibly good show of vegetables as did Mary Ponting, Alison Leach, Ken Jones, and yours truly. Congratulations to Alison on winning the RHS Banksian medal and Town Council Cup, to Mary Ponting for best in fruit and to Joshua Yorke-Wade, our best novice exhibitor. The 5 tomatoes that won their class and the class cup were also judged the best vegetable exhibit and the best in show were from Me, your show secretary, which is a lot for five toms! 

So leaving the vegetables behind we find ourselves gazing longingly at the beauty of the floral arrangements, ladies you all had fantastic exhibits of fresh garden flowers and foliage as well as your dainty buttonholes. Congratulations to Chris Jones, Mary Ponting and Sylvia Comben who not only won the best basket of fresh garden flowers and foliage but also the best floral exhibit in the show. This was also awarded an exceedingly rare judges’ commendation of excellence, never seen at our show before! At the end of the table and looking just over to the right Cath Thomas and Janice Simonnite have their Top Vase displays of two or more varieties of cut flowers. It was a close-run judgement again this year and Cath just squeaked in, well done to you both ladies, a good show. Now looking down at the floral table we have vases of cut flowers, various Dahlias of the Pompom, Cactus and Collarette type and some great big heads of Sunflowers, all these just brightened up the room. We had some Floribunda roses but no HT Roses, there must have been some growing somewhere in Llantwit Major! Standing alone on the tables was a single vase of 3 stunning Gladioli staged by Roy Jones, and 3 single spikes from Chris Jones and Albert and Barbara Payne. When you look back at the weather, we have been having I think all our flower exhibitors did very well to grow and show what you did, it was obviously hard, looking at the lack of blooms available. Not so for the Fuchsias, Cacti and Succulents of all shapes, sizes and hews all looking so bright and healthy. Let us have a look at the tables on the right, no, not the cakes, there for later. 

So, now we are looking at the wonderful exhibits from our young folk, in fact one is so young he has not learnt to walk yet, thank you 11-month-old Meurig Craddock for your picture. This year we had 11 exhibitors in our children’s section, more than double last year, and between them they graced the tables with natural foliage, mixed garden flowers, miniature arrangements in an egg cups, an animal made from fruit and vegetables which was an Owl this years, very clever too. There were two miniature gardens made by Renee and Eira Rees, these take a long time and a lot of patience to make so I was pleased when you both shared the prize for your first placements. There were also lots of ‘Fantasy Garden’ pictures. Overall, there was a young lady, Thea Nicolle, who excelled in her class category by winning three cups and the Aberthaw Power Station shield. Your efforts and everyone else’s were very much appreciated and enjoyed. Thank you to all the children who tried hard, especially Louis Rudd who had four second placements.  

Oh, come on then its cake time! Now this year Jayne Thomas had one big challenge tasting her way through 87 entries in the ‘Home Produce’ section, well you did volunteer! There were lovely dark boiled fruit cakes and fluffy Victoria sponges filled with mouth watering jam and lightly dusted with caster sugar. Plates of Welsh cakes and fresh baked well-risen scones and very well shaped Lemon drizzle cakes with golden crusts and creamy zingy centers. The tables were literally covered this year with absolutely mouth-watering baking, but there was more, more! Yes, chutneys, jams and jellies of various fruits and mixes, we had homebrews, nothing explosive like last year but there were some strong concoctions. 

So, looking back over the hall and all the exhibits in our show this year I can say that we/you had a show to be proud of, one of the better ones this year so far in this part of Wales. Without the support from you, our exhibitors, and visitors alike, and your committee and supporters it would not happen. I, as your show secretary I organize it, it is you who make it. Now I must say thank you to for the support we received for our raffle and this is said to: Waitrose & partners, Arthur John & Co, The Old Swan Inn, The Co-op Llantwit Major, The Fighting Cocks public house in Corby Glen (my nephews), Waterstones, Dunelm and society members. Thank you for the prizes you donated. 

Finally, a date for your calendars. On the 15th of August 2026 we do it all over again and this one is a special show, it is our 50th, our golden anniversary will be upon us next year, so its going to be the extra mile time.  

Thank you, it is time to see Ros and Dawn for a cup of tea, I need it.