Vintage Flower Frogs

Dive into the world of vintage "frogs"... they're not just fun and collectable, they're also useful for your own arrangements.

A flower frog is a device used to help arrange flowers. Some, such as the Japanese kenzan, are utilitarian metal devices that fit into a vase or bowl and fix the stems by metal needles. Other designs use a number of holes or guides that stems can be fit through for arranging.

Flower frogs became widely popular during the 1920s and ’30s. At first strictly utilitarian, artists soon began experimenting with beautiful versions that were designed to be seen, not hidden. No one knows for sure, but they were almost certainly named “frogs” because they sit in water, much like an amphibian. When Oasis floral foam was invented in the mid-1950s, it almost completely edged out these tools.

Some containers have flower frogs built in, like this Flower Frog Bowl:

https://www.thefloralsociety.com/ceramics

Many people like the glass frogs as they are almost invisible when you use them in glass containers, and are easy to keep clean.

How to use flower frogs

• Form small balls with the florist clay. Push the clay onto the bottom of the floral frog

• Push the frog onto the bottom of your container

• Trim the flowers to size using clippers

• Push thestems of the flowers into the “spikes” of the floral frog

• Arrange the flowers in the vase, using the floral frog to support the stems

For a video on how to use flower frogs, visit Martha Stewart here:

https://www.marthastewart.com/246433/flower-frogs

If you are using a clear glass vase you can hide the floral frog with water-resistant leaf ribbon. Another fun idea is to use stones, glass pebbles or shells to hide the frog.

A word of caution... if you have a more delicate or expensive container that you want to use a flower frog in, then you might want to place a piece of folded cloth on the bottom of the container to protect it.