Summer brings the flowering of Lilies in our gardens; and we often have lilies in our bouquets at home. The beautiful large flowers come in many shades, and some are highly scented.
At our florist workshop we remove the anthers from the flowers that are open before they are delivered; but mostly the flowers we send out are still in bud, and therefore we are not able to remove the anthers from the buds. The rusty orange coloured pollen will stain anything that it touches, so we recommend that you remove the anthers which contain the pollen, as soon as you can once the flower has opened. To do this simply grip the anthers and gently pull them off; they will come away easily. Place them in the rubbish bin or compost and then wash any pollen that may have come from them off your hands, so that you don't get stains on anything.
The anthers can be seen in the accompanying photo, they are the deep purplish sacs, (but many lilies have yellow anthers), the rust coloured pollen can be seen inside the anther as it opens. It is best to remove the anthers before the sacs open as the pollen will then still be contained inside.