Flowers for someone with hay fever: what actually sheds pollen

A florist's guide, not medical advice

This is a florist's guide to which flowers shed pollen and which smell strongly. It is not medical advice. Allergies vary widely, and someone with severe allergies or asthma knows their own triggers better than any list, so ask them or someone close to them if you can. If you cannot ask and a reaction could be serious, send something other than flowers.

Why most bouquet flowers are not the main culprit

Hay fever is mostly caused by plants nobody puts in a vase. Grasses, many trees and weeds such as nettles and ragweed release huge quantities of tiny, dry pollen and rely on the wind to carry it to another plant. That only works if the grains are light enough to stay airborne, which is exactly why they end up in people's eyes and noses.

Showy flowers evolved a different arrangement. Bright petals, scent and nectar are there to attract insects, and the insect does the carrying, so the pollen tends to be heavier and stickier, made to cling to a bee rather than drift. It can still cause a reaction when it is shaken onto a table, or touched and rubbed into an eye, but a vase of insect-pollinated flowers is rarely the source of the airborne pollen behind hay fever.

The useful question, then, is not whether a flower has pollen, since nearly all do, but how exposed that pollen is and whether the flower belongs to a group known for causing reactions.

The daisy family deserves caution

Chrysanthemums, gerberas, sunflowers and asters all belong to the daisy family, and so do ragweed and mugwort, two weeds notorious for late-summer hay fever. What looks like one daisy flower is really a head of many tiny florets, and the disc florets in the centre present their pollen on the surface, where it brushes off easily. Some people who react to mugwort or ragweed pollen can react to chrysanthemums too. The family, known botanically as Asteraceae or Compositae, also makes compounds called sesquiterpene lactones in its leaves and flowers, a recognised cause of itchy rashes in people who handle the stems.

• Chrysanthemums are long-lasting and inexpensive, so they turn up in many mixed bouquets. Single and spray types with a visible yellow eye are the most exposed; tightly double, ball-shaped blooms show far less of their centre.
• Gerberas hold a broad disc of florets right in the middle of the flower, facing the room.
• Sunflowers traditionally have a huge pollen-bearing centre, but many varieties grown for cutting are pollenless. Ask the florist which kind they stock.
• Small daisy-family fillers such as solidago, feverfew and asters are easy to overlook in a mixed bunch, and a florist can leave them out on request.

Lilies: keep the flower, lose the anthers

Lilies are not in the daisy family, but each open flower carries six large anthers coated in rust-coloured pollen. It is heavy and sticky, so it does not float around a room the way grass pollen does, yet it transfers readily to fingers, noses and sleeves, and it stains fabric badly.

The fix is simple. As each bud opens, and before the anthers split, pinch them off with a tissue or snip them with small scissors and put them straight in the bin. Florists often do this to open blooms before delivery, but lilies usually travel in bud, so the recipient will need to keep going as the rest open over the following days. It does the flower no harm. The bigger issue with some lilies is their scent, which is covered below.

Flowers that usually cause fewer problems

Orchids are the most reassuring choice where pollen is concerned. Their pollen is not loose at all: it is packed into small waxy parcels called pollinia, hidden under a cap in the flower and designed to be carried off whole by a visiting insect. A potted orchid also flowers for weeks and needs no vase water.

Double flowers are the other good route. In a fully double bloom, many of the parts that would have become pollen-bearing stamens have developed as extra petals instead, which is where all those layers come from. Most florist roses, carnations, double peonies and ranunculus show few stamens, and what pollen remains sits deep inside. A single, open garden rose with a ring of yellow stamens is a different matter.

Mophead hydrangeas are mostly display. Their big rounded heads are built from sterile florets whose colour comes from enlarged sepals, so there is little pollen to speak of. Lacecap hydrangeas, with a flat centre of small fertile flowers, are less clear-cut.

Scent is a separate problem

A flower can shed almost no pollen and still make someone miserable. Strong smells irritate the nose and airways directly, without the immune system being involved, and they are a recognised trigger for non-allergic rhinitis and for asthma symptoms. People often call this an allergy to the flower when they are really reacting to its perfume, and the low-pollen advice above does nothing for them.

Oriental lilies, hyacinths, freesias, stocks, tuberose and many garden roses are heavily scented. Potted orchids, most florist roses, gerberas, hydrangeas and modern cut carnations have little or no fragrance. Someone sensitive to smell may do best with an orchid or hydrangeas, while someone who reacts to pollen but loves perfume may be delighted by a scented double rose.

Small habits that help

Whatever you send, a few habits reduce exposure further.

• Keep the vase out of the bedroom and away from the chair where the person spends most of the day.
• Choose flowers sent in bud where possible, since pollen is released only as a flower opens.
• Change the vase water regularly and do not leave a fading arrangement standing; decaying stems grow mould, and so does orchid bark kept too wet, which matters for anyone with a mould allergy.
• If the recipient will be arranging the stems themselves, gloves are sensible with chrysanthemums and other daisy-family flowers.