My mother, then called Maisie Simmons, was a teenage florist in the mid-1930s and has recollections that may be of interest here. She worked for Jonquils in the Kings Road, Chelsea, and one of her regular tasks was the preparation of table arrangements for the Orient Line. These were loaded into wooden crates and taken to Fenchurch Street station for consignment by rail to Tilbury. Voyages on the Orient Line took weeks rather than days, so the flowers were replenished as necessary at other ports along the way.
Going further off-topic, Jonquils had a lot of customers among the Chelsea theatrical set, including Robert Douglas (later best known as a Hollywood villain), Esmond Knight ('Sink the Bismarck'), Nora Swinburne and Laurence Olivier. My mother particularly remembers Olivier, who lived nearby and called in every morning for a dark red 'clove carnation' which was prepared and attached by her own eager hands.
