Living with lilies: the pollen, the late buds and the cat

Why florists take the anthers out

Open a lily and you will find six stamens arching from the centre, each tipped with an anther that splits to release thick orange or rust-brown pollen. That pollen is why most florists pinch the anthers out before an arrangement leaves the workroom, and why a lily brushed against a pale shirt can leave a mark that outlives the flower.

It stains so stubbornly because lilies are pollinated by insects rather than wind, and insect-pollinated flowers tend to coat their pollen in an oily, pigmented layer that clings to a visiting moth or butterfly. On a sleeve, a tablecloth or the petal below, it does exactly the same job. The large, heavily scented Oriental hybrids are the worst offenders; the smaller Asiatic hybrids shed less but still mark.

Removing the anthers costs the flower nothing that matters in a vase, because a cut stem is never going to set seed.

How to remove them without making a mess

Timing matters more than technique. A freshly opened lily has anthers that are still firm and closed, often pale with only a hint of colour, and at this stage they come away cleanly. Leave them a day and they split, turn fuzzy and dust everything they touch. Because the buds open over several days, look over the arrangement each morning and deal with each new flower as it opens.

• Grip each anther through a folded tissue and pull it gently away from its stalk.
• If an anther has already opened, cup the tissue right around it before you pull, so the pollen lands in the paper rather than on the tepal below.
• Fold the tissue closed and put it straight in the bin, never in the vase water.
• Wash your hands before touching petals, clothes or your face. Pollen carried on fingertips causes more stains than the flowers themselves.

If pollen has already landed

The instinct is to dab at it with a damp cloth, and that is exactly what sets the stain. Water and rubbing push the oily pigment down into the fibres. Pollen that is still dry is sitting on the surface, and it can usually be lifted off whole.

• Shake the fabric outdoors to remove loose pollen, or use a soft dry brush on upholstery and carpet.
• Press sticky tape onto what remains and lift straight off, using fresh tape each time.
• Many florists then leave the item in daylight for a few hours, and the faint shadow left behind often fades. Test coloured fabric first, since sunlight fades dyes too.
• Only then treat any residue with a stain remover and wash as the care label allows.
• On skin, soap and warm water is enough. On a petal, flick the pollen off with a dry brush; rubbing bruises the tepal and fixes the mark.

Why the buds open one after another

A stem of lilies is not a set of flowers at the same stage. The flowers develop in order, generally from the lowest, oldest bud upwards, so a stem bought with one bud just showing colour holds several days of successive opening. That staggered display is a large part of why lilies give around 10 days in a vase, although no single flower on the stem lasts that long.

On the plant, every bud is fed by the leaves and the bulb. Once cut, the stem has only the sugars it carried at harvest and whatever it can draw up from the vase. The large lower flowers take what they need first, and the young buds near the tip are the ones that run short. That is why the top bud sometimes opens small and pale, or not at all, and why a bud that is still tight, green and tiny on arrival may never open in water.

Helping the top buds along

You cannot force a lily bud, but you can give the late ones a better chance by keeping water moving freely up the stem and supplying the sugar they are missing.

• Use the flower food that came with the arrangement, at the stated strength. Its sugar feeds the buds while its biocide keeps the water clean; household sugar on its own feeds bacteria faster than it feeds flowers.
• Re-cut the stems and refresh the solution every couple of days.
• Snap off each flower once it fades, before its falling tepals foul the water.
• Keep the vase somewhere comfortably warm and reasonably bright. Cold slows opening, while direct sun or a nearby radiator shortens the life of the flowers already open.
• Do not tease a stuck bud open with your fingers. The tepals bruise easily and a forced flower browns quickly.

Lilies and cats

Plants of the genera Lilium and Hemerocallis, the true lilies and the daylilies, are poisonous to cats, and every part of the plant counts, including the pollen and the water the stems stand in. A cat that grooms pollen from its fur after brushing past an open flower, or that drinks from the vase, can be poisoned, and the result can be acute kidney failure.

Veterinary poison-control organisations, including the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center and International Cat Care, are unusually direct about this: the safest home for a cat is one with no lilies in it. Taking the anthers out reduces loose pollen, but it does not make the flower safe, because the petals, leaves and vase water remain toxic.

If you are sending flowers to someone who keeps a cat, choose an arrangement without lilies. A florist will happily leave them out, and it spares the recipient an awkward choice between the gift and the pet.

If a cat may have been exposed

Do not wait for the cat to seem unwell. Early signs such as vomiting, loss of appetite and lethargy are easy to dismiss, and they can appear before kidney damage is obvious. The sooner a vet starts treatment, the better the outlook.

• Ring your vet, or an out-of-hours emergency vet, straight away and say that lily exposure is suspected.
• Take a piece of the plant or a photograph of the arrangement, so it can be identified.
• If pollen is visible on the fur or face, wipe it away with a damp cloth so the cat cannot groom it off, but do not let this delay the journey.
• Take the lilies out of the house and empty the vase.

Not everything called a lily

Peace lilies and calla lilies are not true lilies; in cats they irritate the mouth and stomach rather than damaging the kidneys, which is still reason enough to keep them out of reach. Lily of the valley is a different plant again, and it affects the heart. In a home with a cat, check the botanical name of anything sold as a lily.