Ciril Jeglič (1897-1988) was the first gardener and landscape architect in Slovenia with an university education. He began his studies in Vienna and completed them in Zagreb after the dissolution of Austria-Hungary. In the academic year 1929/1930 he continued his professional training at the Technical University in Berlin.
He was a person of many gifts and interests and of extraordinary diligence. He was an educator, organizer, an urban, a park and garden planner and prolific author. His suggestive performance and enthusiasm contributed greatly to the popularisation of the profession and, in the later years, the protection of nature and the environment.
It is thanks to Ciril Jeglič that the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry of the University of Ljubljana chose the nationalised Souvan Park in Volčji Potok to become a study arboretum. Without Jeglič, the Volčji Potok Arboretum would not exist.
During the five years that he led the new institution, the Volčji Potok Arboretum underwent rapid development. Its development plan included spatial solutions for the next fifty years.
From poet to author of specialised literature
Ciril Jeglič was a literary talent. While in grammar school, he wrote and published poetry with his mentor Izidor Cankar by his side. After grammar school, he gave up poetry, published a collection of short stories and then devoted himself to writing non-technical and technical articles, and books.
Jeglič published 1,500 articles in daily newspapers and journals, paying special attention to the Slovenian technical language and carefully developing Slovenian technical terminology. Before World War II, he published a lot in Croatia. After retiring in 1961, he continued to write for garden magazines (Hortikulturni razgledi, Naš vrt, Moj mali svet) and non-technical articles for Proteus magazine, and other publications.
He wrote eleven books, of which two are literary works, one is a memoir and another five are on horticulture and garden art. His book Arboretum Volčji Potok remains the largest monograph on this institution and the broader context of the arboretum and its mission.
A list of his books can be found at the link.
