‘Flower Frog Gazette’ didn’t know origin of the name

Today’s question: How did a flower frog get is name? It’s certainly essential for displaying cut flowers, but there doesn’t seem to be any relationship to amphibians. I have to admit I had never heard of a flower frog before now. Now that I know what it is I think maybe I remember one of my grandmothers having one, or maybe it’s just something it seems like a grandma would have.

A flower frog is a device placed at the bottom of a vase to hold the stems of cut flowers in pleasing arrangements. That is known as floristry. I didn’t know that before, either.

One thing about doing this column is that it is an almost-daily reminder of what I don’t know.

Some flower frogs are discs with holes to hold the stems. Others are discs with brass pins for the stems. That pin type is the Japanese style known as kenzan.

As to the origin of the name, that is a great mystery. Nobody knows. I’m sorry.

Not even the publishers of “Flower Frog Gazette” knew the answer to the name origin.

The “Flower Frog Gazette’’ was yet another of our great print institutions that has now shut down its presses. FFG was published from 1984-1989 to spread the good news of flower frogs among flower enthusiasts and newbies alike.

Its fallen baton has been take up by the folks at bullworks.net where you can find books, bibliographies, magazine articles and catalogs for auctions of antique flower frogs. (Some can go for a pretty penny, but don’t get your hopes up. Yours probably isn’t worth a whole lot.)