Background
Edmund Hall Hart was born on December 26, 1839, at “Heartsease, ” Manchester Bridge, Poughkeepsie, New York, the son of Benjamin Hall and Elizabeth (Nichols) Hart.
Edmund Hall Hart was born on December 26, 1839, at “Heartsease, ” Manchester Bridge, Poughkeepsie, New York, the son of Benjamin Hall and Elizabeth (Nichols) Hart.
Hart received a thorough training in horticulture from his father.
Edmund Hart with his brothers, Walter and Ambrose, settled in 1867 at Federal Point, Florida, and engaged in the culture of oranges and other citrus fruits. At this time American horticulturists were chiefly concerned with the adaptation of plant and fruit varieties to various parts of the United States. Hart developed an extensive stock and at one time had more than one hundred and fifty varieties of citrus alone under observation, as well as varieties of other fruits which could be grown in Florida.
Hart introduced into the state under the name of Hart’s Late or Hart's Tardiff (Tardive), the famous Valencia orange, which was later widely cultivated both in Florida and California. Of his other fruits his Choice banana, originally from the Bahamas, was an important product of his breeding. He was an extensive exhibitor at Florida fairs and exhibitions.
Hart's writings include the subtropical fruit section in J. J. Thomas’ American Fruit Culturist, which appeared first in the twentieth edition of that work in 1897, and the various reports of his committees published in the Proceedings of the American Pomological Society from 1883 to 1889.
Hart was a member of the old Florida Fruit Growers’ Association, of the American Pomological Society, and a charter member of the Florida State Horticultural Society.
In person Hart was modest and retiring in manner.
Hart married Isabella Martense Howland on December 1, 1870.