Kitchen Garden Forum

Does anybody know how to remove Lilly pollen stains from a carpet ?
I usually snip the dangerous bits out as soon as the flowers open but missed some and then made the fatal mistake of trying to remove the bright yellow stains with wet carpet shampoo which apparently is the worst thing I could possibly have done as now the stain seems to have set solid.

Well I'm answering my own question having done a little bit of experimenting in case anybody else suffers future difficulties with these notoriously hard to remove stains if the pollen gets onto fabric.

The solution proved to be a pink tub of Vanish stain remover crystals. I mixed a generous teaspoon of crystals into a a couple of tablespoons of warm water to make a paste and rubbed it gently into the stains. A couple of hours later they had disappeared.

I'm just hoping I don't check the area tomorrow and find a series of holes in the carpet!

Well, that's a good tip. Thank you.

For future pollen based accidents, try picking up the loose pollen with sellotape. You must do this immediately, any rubbing will consolidate the pollen into the fibres.

Thank you for the Sellotape tip. I normally snip out the offending stamens before they have a chance to cause this kind of staining but a few late opening blooms got overlooked on this occasion..

you're welcome! I usually walk into the stamens I missed trimming, and get the pollen on my sleeve.

This post brings back memories! Before I got the opportunity to wear navy we wore white uniforms & boy I learnt the hard way that lilies may be beautiful but you do need to make sure they / you are not too close. I got on first name terms with the uniform lady getting replacements! Nothing available then would shift the stains.

Westi

Excellent advice. We've just been given a bunch of lilly's for our anniversary (August till Jan, not bad for a late anniversary present lol) I'm convinced were going to make a mess lol. Lilly's arnt normally aloud in the house because some lilly's pollen is toxic to cats, and we have a cat...

Yes Dan, I've read that lilly pollen can be very dangerous for cats. At least you're prepared now. Buy a tub of Pink Vanish anyway. Sooner or later you're bound to get some nasty red tomato stains on your clean white shirt ! And with a small child I guess stains of any sort are just waiting to happen.