Are you familiar with flower frogs? They are the handy little vase or bowl inserts that hold flower stems in position while you create an arrangement. They can be found in several forms such as wire domes, circles with holes, and circles with pins on top. Commonly they are made of glass, ceramic, iron, lead, and even wood.
I have a few vintage ones that come in really handy when I want to make a quick arrangement. Insert the flower frog in the bottom of a bowl or vase. Fill the bowl with cold water. Cut the floral stems the same length. For my bowls, I cut them about 3 inches long (cut three inches from base of flower to end of stem). Insert flowers into the open holes. The dome shaped arrangements that are so common these days can be easily accomplished with a flower frog.
A search on eBay for vintage flower frogs will result in almost 3,000 hits. My favorites are the figural ones that have a woman or bird in the center and a circle of holes around the base. These are inserted in a bowl and flowers can then be inserted around the figure.
The other type that is really nice is the bowl and frog combo, so that the flower frog is made to fit over the top of the bowl or in an indentation in the bottom of the bowl. I own a pedestaled white milk glass bowl with a flower frog clear glass lid that can be seen in the photos accompanying this post. It comes in really handy. I have another pedastaled white milk glass bowl that is larger but has no lid. I wonder if it had one at one time.
Now if you aren’t much for flower arranging, I do think these can come in pretty handy for other uses. The kind that have holes could easily accommodate pens for customers to use, hold kabobs at a buffet, or to secure the handle end of make-up brushes at a vanity table.
Alternatively, I keep thinking a toothbrush holder (the ceramic, glass or acrylic kind with a cup on bottom and a lid with holes on top) might make a nice vase and flower frog.
I do not own any of the kind with pins on top. They come in two types: one looks like pins or nails in a circular cluster, the other looks like the elbow of hairpins gathered in a circular cluster. There are modern versions of these that can be purchased for just a few dollars on eBay.
The following are available now on eBay. Good luck bidding (and choosing!).
Greetings, we have a collection of floral frogs we would like to sell as an assortment vs pricing and marketing them individually. We have 30 frogs – wire, glass and ceramic. Would you be interested or do you know of someone who might be interested to buy this collection? We will price competitively to sell as a package. Thank you. Skip Downham
Unfortunately, I do not know anyone who might be interested. I purchased some of mine on eBay. At that time there were some groupings of floral frogs for sale. The other option might be Facebook Marketplace. I have sold several items on it, which prevents having to package and ship. Good luck!