HEAVEN SCENT

Designer Arne Maynard has created an enchanting and fragrant blend of formal and wild in the garden of a rectory in Dorset

- SARAH WILSON

The roses were the first thing that Emily Cave noticed about the Old Rectory at Litton Cheney in Dorset when she viewed the house in 2009. ‘The pale pink blooms of the old climbing rose ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ scrambled over the front of the house,’ she says. ‘It was so relaxed and inviting. Roses have been our tie with this place ever since.’

Dating back to 1780, the rectory is situated on the side of a hill in the Bride Valley, just a couple of miles from Chesil Beach. Formerly owned by the artist, engraver and stone carver Reynolds Stone and his wife Janet, who was a photographer, the garden sweeps down the hillside to woodland with lush ferns, natural springs and shady pools. Among the wildness, you’ll now find roses, too. ‘I plant roses wherever I can, including ramblers in the woodland to break up the green canopy,’ says Emily. The rest of the garden has more formal touches, with topiary, a walled garden and a kitchen garden.