'Sympathetic and engrossing... a portrait of great charm and sophistication' —Guardian
The irresistible story of Japanese cherry blossoms, threatened by political ideology and saved by an unknown Englishman.
Collingwood
Ingram, known as ‘Cherry’ for his defining obsession, was born in 1880
and lived until he was a hundred, witnessing a fraught century of
conflict and change.
After visiting Japan in 1902 and 1907 and
discovering two magnificent cherry trees in the garden of his family
home in Kent in 1919, Ingram fell in love with cherry blossoms, or
sakura, 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.
A cloned cherry, the Somei-yoshino, was taking over the landscape and
becoming the symbol of Japan's expansionist ambitions.
The most
striking absence from the Japanese cherry scene, for Ingram, was that of
Taihaku, a brilliant ‘great white’ cherry tree. A proud example of this
tree grew in his English garden and he swore to return it to its native
home. Multiple attempts to send Taihaku scions back to Japan ended in
failure, but Ingram persisted.
Over decades, Ingram became one
of the world’s leading cherry experts and shared the joy of sakuraboth
nationally and internationally. Every spring we enjoy his legacy.
‘Cherry’ Ingram is a portrait of this little-known Englishman, a story
of Britain and Japan in the twentieth century and an exploration of the
delicate blossoms whose beauty is admired around the world.
