Cherries in Japan, Gladioli in South Africa

In 1919, the Ingram family moved to Benenden in Kent where The Grange, a substantial Victorian house, had a large, but little developed garden. Perhaps in a mood of post-war renewal, Collingwood stopped work on his book on the Birds of France (only part was published, as Birds of the Riviera in 1926) and turned his talents and energies to the Grange garden. Two existing large and beautiful flowering cherries in the garden, together with his love of the people and culture of Japan, led him to begin a collection of  Japanese cherries.  Before long he was  a world authority and came to be known throughout the gardening world as "Cherry Ingram". Over the next decades his contribution to the survival and popularity of Japanese cherries was immense.

But his energies were not limited to cherries. At the end of 1927, he travelled to South Africa and collected bulbs and corms, especially Gladioli. In the early 1930s he published more on Gladioli than he did on cherries.