As well as coach trips, monthly guest speakers, our summer show every August and our AGM held in October, the society also and proudly takes part in and supports a variety of local events.

We pride ourselves on servicing our local area and are keen to embed ourselves in our community not just in Llantwit Major, but also the Vale as a whole and even stretching our wings further where we can! 

We try as much as possible to promote local events relating (however loosely!) to gardening, from NGS open gardens to local flower festivals, county shows, what’s going on in Dyffryn or Tredegar House, events the schools have running, work that other local horticultural societies or are doing, trips running by local gardening clubs, callouts for help or advertising equipment for our members and much much more. 

We want you to think of us your hub for all local knowledge and information, as well as a way of advertising any help or advice you might need. A one stop shop for community news as well as promoting what’s going on in our society so please get in touch if you have anything to promote! 

Llantwit Major Library summer reading challenge 2025

In the summer of 2025, Llantwit Major Library hosted a variety of workshops based on the theme of gardening, so when we were asked to participate it was a no brainer! 

On Friday 25th July, the horticultural society joined forces with the library and set up a drop-in workshop for children to come and draw their `dream garden`. Elizabeth, our trips secretary, and Gwennan, our website co-ordinator, were in attendance. We combined the event with an invitation  for the children to enter their creations in our show.

10 children aged between 11 months and 12 years attended and spent a chatty, crafty morning designing and drawing. The concentration levels were impressive and the resulting pictures were of an extremely high level, some of which are displayed in the library. 9 of the children have entered the show and we look forward to welcoming them on the day to see their drawings on display.

In the afternoon, we held a similar workshop for Vale Plus and Elizabeth was joined by Emily Yorke-Wade who knows many of the members of the group, and who made their day when they saw her! The pictures created were very detailed and colourful, and the group spent a happy hour deciding on the elements they wanted to include, with some drawing their dream garden and others choosing from a selection of pictures we had cut out from magazines to stick onto their pictures. 

Both workshops were a huge success and a big thankyou goes to the staff at the library who couldn`t have been more helpful, providing us with all the paper, pencils and colouring pencils we required, together with books for inspiration.  Thank you also to Gwennan and Emily for their valued help.

llanfair primary school green space project

Llanfair School approached us in early 2025 having received a grant for a project called Green Space. Their plan was to create an area which was natural, low maintenance, tactile, wildlife friendly and accessible to all children but needed some advice on what plants might be suitable. 

Trips Secretary Elizabeth volunteered to share her wisdom and was more than happy to take on the task as both her children attended the school 20 years ago! She visited the school to discuss their plans and ideas and advised on the planting schemes. She also compiled a list of suitable plants for each area for the project leaders to investigate.

Parents and volunteers helped prepare the ground, create the various areas and help with the planting, with some plants being donated. 

There's plenty of progress still to make as the green space is new and plants are busy establishing but I think we can all agree the work is outstanding so far!

Cheese and wine evening 2024

On Friday May 24th the Society held a cheese and wine evening at the Llantonian Hall to say thank you to all our volunteers who help in various ways, including manning the store on a Sunday morning, helping to unload deliveries of compost and other items at the store, making and serving the teas and biscuits at our monthly talks and washing up afterwards, and providing assistance to our show secretary in the setting up and running of our annual show.

The evening was organised by our show secretary, Tim Prior, and our speakers secretary, Cath Thomas. 35 invited guests attended and enjoyed a substantial and very tasty buffet which included bread, cheese biscuits, pate, many varieties of cheese, grapes, pickled onions and pickles, with a choice of wine or fruit juice.

Our chairman, Bill Lee, thanked all our volunteers for their willingness and commitment to the Society. Without them, it would be a lot more work for the committee and we are very grateful for the time and effort our volunteers give to the Society.

Wreath Making 2023

At the beginning of December, some of the Society's members visited Pheasant Acre Plants in Llangan to learn how to make a festive wreath.

We were greeted with a moss filled wire ring, a vast selection of greenery, berries, dried fruit slices, tiny pumpkins, cinnamon sticks, pine cones and a roll of florists wire, with no idea what to do with it all!

Luckily, Rob, owner of the nursery, was on hand to show us the order in which to tackle it, and advising us on the best greenery to use for the outside of the ring to create a substantial base then filling in the rest of the ring with our choice of greenery and berries, ensuring they were tightly wired to make a solid structure. We then added the fruit slices, pine cones, etc to create a colourful and, I'm sure you will agree, beautiful Christmas wreath. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon and definitely learned a lot. Many thanks to Rob for his patience, advice and a very warm welcome. 

2016 Flower Festival.