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. Ingram first fell in love with the sakura, or cherry tree, when he visited Japan in 1907, and brought back cuttings with him to England. Years later, upon learning that the Great White Cherry had virtually disappeared from Japan, he buried a living cutting in a potato and repatriated it via the Trans-Siberian Express. Telling this fascinating story, Naoko Abe follows the flower from its significance as a symbol of the imperial court, through the dark days of World War II, and up to the present-day worldwide fascination with this iconic blossom.