'Cherry' Ingram: The Englishman Who Saved Japan's Blossoms

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After visiting Japan in 1902 and 1907 and discovering two magnificent cherry trees in the garden of his family home in Kent in 1919, Collingwood Ingram fell in love with cherry blo ssoms, and dedicated much of his life to their cultivation and preservation. On a 1926 trip to Japan to search for new specimens, Ingram was shocked to see the loss of local cherry diversity, driven by modernisation, neglect and a dangerous and creeping ideology. The most striking absence from the Japanese cherry scene, for Ingram, was that of Taihaku, a brilliant 'great white' cherry tree. Multiple attempts to send Taihaku scions back to Japan ended in failure. Over decades, Ingram became one of the world's leading cherry experts and shared the joy of sakura both nationally and internationally. This book presents a portrait of this little-known Englishman. Show more