Love blooms at flower show in southwestern Germany

DPA/Freiburg, GermanyGermany’s largest flower festival in late autumn began this weekend in the upper Rhein River area.“Chrysanthema” lasts three weeks in the southwestern city of Lahr in Baden-Wuerttemberg state and is being celebrated with more than 10,000 chrysanthemums planted in beds, carts and on balconies around town.This year’s edition of the annual festival with the theme Mon Amour is dedicated to love and features a 3m-high chrysanthemum gate as well as concerts and Sunday shopping.More than 300,000 people have visited the festival in previous years from across southern Germany, Switzerland and the Alsace region across the border in France.The festival has developed into a strong tourist magnet, Mayor Wolfgang Mueller said.The festival opened on Saturday and runs through November 9.