Love those beautiful, eye-catching lilies, but having difficulty removing pollen stains?
Lilies are exotic flowers. They are beautiful in appearance and will delight you with their fragrance and colors. Despite their beauty, Lily pollen can leave stains on almost everything- from carpets and clothes to household surfaces.
The color in the pollen is made up of a range of pigments. Most of the vibrant-colored plants you see around you have them as well. For lilies, it is the yellow and orange carotenoids that give them their color and staining properties.
When it comes to pollen stain removal, it’ll take more than the conventional cleaning methods to prevent permanent damage to your household items. Since lilies possess unique organic qualities, the marks they create are a lot different from other stains. They are dry, dusty and water resistant. Because of these properties, you’ll find it easier to remedy pollen stains when they are dry.
So, are there any special tricks in removing pollen stains?
Firstly, here are 3 tips on what NOT to do.
- Avoid blotting or wiping the stain. This is absolutely the worst thing you can do. Wiping or even rubbing the pollen dust across the surface of your carpet will only spread the yellow stain even further and deeper into its fibers. Ideally, you want to contain the pollen on the surface of your carpet for easier removal.
- Avoid wetting the pollen stain. This is another terrible idea. If you add water immediately to the stain, it will dissolve the pollen and the color will spread further into the fibers.
- Do not touch the lily pollen stain. Your fingertips have natural oils that can cause the pollen to sink deeper into the fabric. This can make the stain even harder to remove.
See Also: Five Tough Spring Cleaning Projects and How to Tackle Them
On the other hand, here is one of the easiest things you can do to get rid of lily pollen stain from your carpet.
Use Sticky Tape
Provided you’ve followed the tips above, removing lily pollen from your carpet using sticky tape should be fairly easy.
Simply take a piece of sticky tape and lay it very gently over the pollen-affected area. Dab the tape over the pollen and lift it away. Continue repeating this step using a clean section of the sticky tape each time. Using a fresh section of the sticky tape will prevent you from re-introducing the pollen to the carpet.
Repeat this process until you’re sure that you’ve removed all the pollen.
See Also: Cheap Cleaning 101 – Use Baking Soda
Don’t be discouraged about buying lilies just because they can leave unwanted stains. To make sure you don’t have to go through the inconvenience of removing their marks, you can cut off their anthers.
Once their flowers open up and there’s enough space for you to get access, wrap some tissue paper around the anthers and cut them off. Anthers are the long stalks bearing the pollen. If you’ll be buying lilies from a florist, you can ask them to do it for you.