Dangers of Lily Pollen and Pet Cats

Lily Pollen has been found to be poisonous to cats.

When cats roam and may go through a lily patch. When they do they may rub up against the blooms of the lilies and lily pollen gets on their fur. Later cats lick themselves in their grooming and washing. The pollen on their fur is poisonous to them.

If the cat is an indoor plant, and you have a bouquet of flowers with lilies, the pollen will drop around the arrangement, and can either be licked up by the cat, or get onto their fur and be licked by the cat in their grooming of themselves by licking their fur. Again, that pollen is poisonous to them.

How can this be avoided? One, plant pollen free lilies, and if you buy arrangements of flowers with lilies in them, insist on pollen free lilies. Both will help reduce issues of cats being poisoned by lily pollen.

A New Pollen Free Dwarf Asiatic Lily?

Sometimes, hybridizers are pleasantly surprised to find a good seedling in their patch. The yellow lily pictured to the left is such a one. The bloom is not as large as the other pollen-free asiatic lilies that this hybridizer has obtained, but is well formed, and long lasting. The plant appears to be definitely a dwarf. It warrants further evaluation to see how good it really is. Will try and report back next year on it.

Pesty Pollen Stains

Many things have been tried to remove those pesty pollen stains: Here are some of them:
Washing the clothes, sticky tape, let the sun bleach it, Oxyclean, Rub the area with styrofoam, or use White-spirit/Turps (that's paint brush cleaner).

Think about it, wouldn't it be easier to avoid the problem using Pollen-Free lilies?

Pollen Free Lilies Have No Pollen to Be Troublesome

Pollen from flowers has spread many times where it is not wanted, ruining table settings, formal clothes, and such like. In addition, pollen stains are hard to get rid of.

How can we avoid these problems? Use pollen free flowers when they are available. They do not having those problems described above, which makes them very desirable. Pollen-free lilies do not stain table cloths, wedding dresses, clothes, or spoil table settings. As border plants they won’t get your slacks/pants dirty in the garden. Those reasons are why pollen free lilies are a good choice for gardens and as cut flowers.

Are Pollen-free (Pollen free) lilies available?

Pollen-free (pollen free) Asiatic lilies have been developed! Read in this blog to see examples of tested seedlings bred for this purpose.

Pollen Free Lilies Aid Pollen Sufferers

It is a known fact that pollen is often found in the air we breath. The availability of pollen-free (pollen free) Asiatic lilies should enable pollen sufferers to enjoy the beauty of flowers.

Why Are Asiatic Pollen-Free Lilies Significant?

The answer to this question is that allergies are often aggravated by pollen. Therefore any reduction in pollen in a flower should help allergin sufferers. Turner's Patch has selectively bred several pollen-free and reduced pollen-free asiatic lilies with the added benefit of being shorter in height---some are dwarf, -- which makes them excellent pot plants or border plants.

The results of the breeding are posted in this blog.  One of the seedlings that Turner's Patch has bred and grown, is now registered with the Royal Horticultural Society.  It is named "Dr. Thomas Massie".  This fine lily is being grown at a home that is still in the Massie Family.  The house was built by Dr. Thomas Massie for his son.  The home is located in Massie's Mill, Va and is called 'Pharsalia'.  The lily at this time is not available for distribution.