On 7th April, Friends of Benenden Grange hosted an evening with Naoko Abe and Chris Lane. 

It’s not too late to watch the event.

On Wednesday 7th April we hosted our first ever fully virtual event as an alternative to the annual open gardens.  The event was a great success with 115 tickets sold with participants joining from the UK, Austria, Amsterdam and even New Zealand! 

Our huge thanks go to Naoko Abe and Chris Lane for their time, passion and commitment to supporting the event.

Purchase the Recording

If you missed the opportunity to join the event, you can still purchase the event recording.  To do this, please complete the below form and make a donation through Friends of Benenden Grange Just Giving page Friends of Benenden Grange – JustGiving

To celebrate the start of cherry blossom season, the Friends of Benenden Grange invited you to join them for a virtual gathering featuring stories and conversations with renowned author and journalist Naoko Abe and horticulturalist and author Chris Lane.

Green fingered gardeners and cherry blossom fans loved hearing the inspiration behind Naoko’s critically acclaimed book Cherry’ Ingram, The Englishman Who Saved Japan’s Blossoms. The book details the story of how Kent based Ingram returned a beautiful variety ‘Taihaku’ (the great white cherry) to Japan following its extinction there.

Ingram’s former home, The Grange, is now home to adults with learning disabilities supported by The Grange (2016) Ltd, which is part of the charity, QEF. Based in Cranbrook, Kent, The Grange (2016) Ltd, provides support for up to 25 people with learning disabilities in a range of residential and supported living settings.