The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter

The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan's Cherry Blossoms

The incredibleâ€”and improbableâ€”story of how an English eccentric saved Japanâ€™s beloved cherry blossoms from extinction.

Collingwood Ingramâ€”known as â€œCherryâ€ for his defining passionâ€”was born in 1880 and lived until he was a hundred, witnessing a fraught century of conflict and change. Visiting Japan in 1902 and again in 1907, he fell in love with the countryâ€™s distinctive cherry blossoms, orÂ sakura, and brought back hundreds of cuttings with him to England, where he created a garden of cherry varieties.

On a 1926 trip to Japan to search for new specimens, Ingram was shocked to find a dramatic decline in local cherry diversity. A cloned variety was taking over the landscape and becoming the symbol of Japanâ€™s expansionist ambitions, while the rare and spectacular Taihaku, or â€œGreat White Cherry,â€ had disappeared entirely.

But thousands of miles away, at Ingramâ€™s country estate, the Taihaku still prospered. After returning to Britain, the amateur botanist buried a living cutting from his own collection into a potato and repatriated it to Japan via the Trans-Siberian Express. Over the decades that followed, Ingram became one of the worldâ€™s leading cherry experts and shared the joy of sakura both nationally and internationally, sending more than a hundred varieties of cherry tree to new homes around the globe, from Auckland, New Zealand to Washington, D.C.

As much a history of the cherry blossom in Japan as it is the story of one remarkable man, The Sakura Obsession follows the flower from its significance as a symbol of the imperial court, through the dark days of the Second World War, and up to the present-day worldwide fascination with this iconic blossom.
Country USA
Brand Knopf
Manufacturer Knopf
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber Illustrations, unspecified
ReleaseDate 2019-03-19
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781524733575

Country	USA
Brand	Knopf
Manufacturer	Knopf
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	Illustrations, unspecified
ReleaseDate	2019-03-19
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781524733575

The Sakura Obsession: The Incredible Story of the Plant Hunter Who Saved Japan's Cherry Blossoms

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