Sakura. About the Flowering of Cherry Blossoms

Each year, the flowering of cherry blossoms marks the beginning of spring. But if it weren’t for the pioneering work of an English eccentric, Collingwood “Cherry” Ingram, Japan’s beloved cherry blossoms could have gone extinct. During this lecture, Naoko Abe, the London-based writer of the bestseller Sakura, will talk about the history of this iconic blossom.

Ingram first fell in love with the sakura, or cherry tree, when he visited Japan on his honeymoon in 1907 and was so taken with the plant that he brought back hundreds of cuttings with him to England. Years later, upon learning that the Great White Cherry had virtually disappeared from Japan, he buried a living cutting from his own collection in a potato and repatriated it via the Trans-Siberian Express. In the years that followed, Ingram sent more than 100 varieties of cherry tree to new homes around the globe.

Speakers

Naoko Abe is a London-based journalist and non-fiction writer. Her bestseller Sakura focuses on the life and achievements of the British plantsman Collingwood Ingram, who fell in love with Japanese cherry blossoms at the beginning of the 20th century. He not only introduced many cherry tree varieties to the UK and beyond but saved them at a time when they were forgotten and disappearing in Japan. The book also explains the symbolism of cherry blossoms in Japan and examines their changing role in history, particularly during World War II.