Chapter 2 - A Plant Pioneer

Gunnar James Hiorth (1894-1967), the man who wanted to dress up the mountains in Norway.

Gunnar was a plant pioneer, who planted more than 2000 different plants from all over the world at Håskog. He thought it was bad that the Norwegian forests only had 2 main types of timber and wanted to try out trees from other regions such as Siberia and California.

Just to name a few, he tried 53 different types of fir (Abies), 57 types of cypress (Chamaecyparis), 14 types of larch (Larix), 42 types of spruce (Picea), 58 types of pine (Pinus) and 79 types of junipers (Juniperus). There are still many trees planted by Gunnar to be discovered in Håskog's forests, such as the beautiful rhododendron forest that still remains on the property.

"Gunnar Hiorth was not only a plant enthusiast. He also loved texts and he knew his classics. He especially likes to read Lord Byron. There he found the poem "To a foundlander" where it says that a dog like that has all the good qualities of a human and none of their bad ones... Lord Byron's dog was called Boatswain and thus Hiorth called his dog Boatswain.

"I was about to say that Siberian dwarf pine will one day dress up Norway's bare shoulders... From Sembrafuru I have received 25 kilos of seeds that germinate well and in three years I can deliver 100,000 plants of this type."

— from Stavanger Aftenblad , A sausage stick in the ground, 20.06.1959.