Blooming overwhelming!

The festoons of plants which hang from balconies and window boxes in so many of the houses in this part of Austria are past their best. During the late summer, opulent waves of gaudy colours pour downward from some homes, while others have lines of flowers in a single colour like a regiment of guards.



 

In the spring the garden centres are busy with shoppers seeking their favoured colours and plants and a sign that the frosty nights are past is the appearance of nascent growth, to be nurtured, tweaked and watered in a regular evening ritual.

Embach's Krämerwirt's display still looks good at the beginning og October

Some houses are so renowned for their overwhelming blooms that they attract coach loads of tourists to come, gasp, photograph and to move on.

Now the season is coming to an end and once again the compost heaps with be awash with the fading colours of summer. Houses will look bare, for just a few months before the ritual begins again and once more, Austria puts on its traditional summer face.