Page 38 - The Hunt - Summer 2022

LAVENDER’S
The Rosens have enriched a historic property with fields of fragrant flowers— enriching their family in the process.
BY ROGER MORRIS | PHOTOS BY JIM GRAHAM
few years ago, Ed Rosen and his wife, Dolly, were looking for a country place for their retirement—
hopefully one with enough suitable land for growing a little lavender. Soon, Rosen would be
wrapping things up on
Wall Street, where he served as a lawyer specializing in derivatives at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, and he was happy to be abandoning his daily commutes from the New Jersey suburbs. “We looked at about 75 properties, and even had architectural drawings made,” says Rosen from the sitting room of the family’s Chester County farmhouse, whose foundations date back to the 1700s.
Ed showed his wife photos of the property. “I said, ‘Buy it—I don’t even need to see it first,’” Dolly says.
Four years later, Warwick Farm has been reimagined and revived by the Rosens and their four grown daughters. Located within the Thomas P. Bentley Nature Preserve along the South Branch of French Creek in northern Chester County, this impressive work in progress also involves the restoration of several structures. And while, climatewise, it can’t compete with the lavender fields of Provence in the South of France, its rural vistas and beds of aromatic flowers are breathtakingly beautiful.
36 THE HUNT MAGAZINE summer 2022