BLOSSOMING IN EASTERN STYRIA

In mid-April, the Styrian Apple Road is transformed into a fragrant sea of blossoms when all the apple trees blossom in delicate pink and white. At the annual blossom festival in the apple village of Puch, the bike tour through blossoming orchards with refreshment stops is a feast for the senses.  From April to May, the blossom weeks tempt you to enjoyable hikes. Delicious specialties attract visitors to the farm store and to the innkeepers in the apple country.

In the Pöllauer Tal Nature Park, people love the Pöllauer Hirschbirn'. Pure white blossoms transform the gentle hilly landscape into an idyll. Orchard meadows and rows of fruit trees between old farms line the hiking trails. The Hirschbirne is an old Styrian pear variety and is refined into juice, must, jelly, liqueur, noble brandy, Hirschbirn ham, sweet variations and delicacies of the local gastronomy with a creative touch.

Colorful eye-catcher: a crocus rarely comes alone. The spring sun attracts thousands and thousands of white and purple crocuses, also known as alpine saffron, from the moist alpine soil. Crocus meadows as far as the eye can see! A hike across the Teichalm is beautiful. At the beginning of May, it is the sunny yellow carpets that roll out over the fresh green alpine meadows. The dandelion bloom along the Tischlein-Deck-Dich bike tour is an experience for the palate.

Spring announces itself. When the sun rises higher in the sky day by day, nature stirs. The first harbingers can be found in Mühlwald in the fertile valley of the Ilz. At the "Schneeglöckerlplatz" the spring knotweed adorns the forest floor. Keep your eyes open when cycling along the river in the Raab Valley. The delicate green play of colors colors the landscape with fresh verve. Spring is kissed awake and opens the round dance of nature.

The snake's head, or chess flower, is a species of lily that is now rarely found in Europe. The flowers are mostly single and nodding. At flowering time around Easter, thousands of chessflower heads turn the meadows into a dark red sea of flowers.

However, this coloring of the meadows lasts only one to two weeks. After that the plant disappears in the green of the new sprouting meadow grasses. Only in the east of Austria you can find chessflower meadows: in eastern Styria in Großsteinbach and in southern Burgenland.