How to Get Lily Pollen Out of Clothes

It’s really sweet when someone goes to the trouble of buying you a beautiful bouquet of lilies. Of course, the first, and expected, thing to do when they hand them over is to lean right in to sniff the flowers… But that’s a big mistake!

Your kind gesture will probably result in your favourite top being plagued by orange lily pollen. This is not a good look and getting the pollen off can be a bit annoying – especially if you remove the pollen in the wrong way.

Yes, you read that right. Lily pollen must be cleaned off clothes in a particular way, or you’ll end up with an even worse stain.

On that note, let’s get to the cleaning before you end up with an even bigger problem on your hands. Here’s how you get lily pollen out of clothes.

The Don’ts When Removing Lily Pollen From Clothes

• Don’t wet your pollen stain initially – Why? A lily pollen stain is like a dusty powder, while other stains are saucy, inky or liquid based. If you add water to a powder, it becomes thick and hard to remove. Think about it like this, when you’re baking and you get flour on your apron, you don’t wet your apron to get the flour off, you shake it off. The same goes for lily pollen.
• Don’t press hard on the lily pollen mark – Pressing hard on the pollen will only push it further into the fibres of your clothes, and that’ll make it even harder to remove.
• Don’t touch the lily pollen with your fingers – Generally fingers get quite oily. So as with water, the lily pollen will react to the oily touch of your fingers and will be more difficult to remove. Plus, lily pollen can stain your skin too.
• Don’t scrub at the lily pollen – This will just move the pollen around and into more of your clothes.

 

Removing Lily Pollen Stains From Clothes

When you get a pollen stain on your clothes one of the most important steps to take is to act quickly. This will limit the amount of time the lily pollen has to settle and nestle into your clothes’ fibres.

Plus, it also prevents any other variables from interfering with the pollen, for example, accidentally tipping water onto the stain.

You can try one or all of the options below to remove the lily pollen from your clothing.

Just remember to test any products out on a discrete patch of clothing first, stick to the instructions on your clothing’s tags, and air dry your clothes whenever possible. 

Option 1: Use Sellotape to remove the lily pollen from your clothes

This is the easiest option on this list, it’s simple to do and it yields good results.

All you need to do is grab some Sellotape (you can buy it on Amazon here), and press the tape gently over the lily pollen on your clothes. Pull the tape off a few seconds later and the pollen should be gone (repeat if required).

You don’t need to press hard because the tape is fairly sticky. Additionally, if you’ve acted fast, the pollen won’t have had time to settle deep into your clothing’s fibres.

It’s worth considering trying this option out when you’re still wearing the stained item, because taking the top off, for example, may spread the pollen around your home and onto your furniture.

Option 2: Shake your clothes to get the pollen off

If you’ve not got sticky tape at hand, you could shake the pollen off your clothes. Make sure you do this outside otherwise you’ll stain other items in your home with the lily pollen.

This option can also give you good results, but sometimes small traces of pollen can be seen on clothes. So, you may need to combine this option with another option on this list.  

Option 3: Leave your clothing in sunlight 

If the stains are quite small you could rest your top outside in the sunlight for a few hours. The pollen will just fade away under the glare of the sun.

Additionally, you could shake your clothes before you lay them down flat to aid the sunlight! 

Option 4: Hoover the pollen off your clothes

It’s possible to hoover lily pollen off your clothes. Just hold the hoover about 3 cm away from your item of clothing and move the suction head around. There’s no need to press the vacuum cleaner’s head onto the item.  

Option 5: Soak and rinse clothing in cold water

Follow the steps below to remove tougher or larger lily pollen stains from your clothes.

You will need:

• Stained item
• Bowl
• Jug
• Cold water

Follow these steps:

1. Turn your item of clothing inside out.
2. Pop the item in a bowl with the back of the pollen stain facing you. 
3. Pour cold water onto the back of the pollen stain. 
4. The water will seep through to the front of the item and will draw the lily pollen out of the fibres.
5. Repeat the steps above.
6. Place the item of clothing to soak in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes. 
7. Wash the item of clothing as normal – warm wash and detergent.

 

Option 6: Use a stain remover to remove lily pollen from clothes

Before you continue to use this option, you should consider using one of the other options listed above to aid this method. For example, use Sellotape to remove as much of the pollen as possible before you apply the stain remover.

Check out our roundup of the .

All you need to do then is pick a stain remover of your choice (see the best stain removers for clothes here), test it out, and apply it to the affected area. You will need to wait a few minutes, so that the stain remover can work its magic into the fibers of your clothes. When you’re done you can wash your clothes as normal.

You must follow the guidance on the stain remover’s bottle. And you should not be wearing the stained item of clothing when you’re treating it.

Option 7: Rubbing Alcohol 

For extremely tough pollen stains you can try rubbing alcohol (see some on Amazon here). You should always test this product out before you use it because it can cause discoloration.

When you’re ready to use the product, just pop some rubbing alcohol onto a clean cotton cloth and start dabbing at the lily pollen marks. You may need to repeat this process a few times. When you’re done you need to wash the item of clothing as you would normally.

You should not be wearing the stained item of clothing when you’re treating it with rubbing alcohol.

 

Tips For Preventing a Lily Pollen Problem in the Future

• Some people recommend taking the anthers out of the flower’s head early on to limit this problem. You must do this carefully and use a tissue to do so. Also, make sure that pets/kids are out of the way when you do this, so no harm comes to them.
• Keep the lilies away from your clothes and any other furniture.
• Stop kids and pets from playing near the lilies, this will stop the spread of the pollen.