"Kay" wrote
Klara writes
Cerumen writes
"Klara" wrote
Or ... my daughter asked how she can get lily pollen out of a white
towelling dressing gown (don't ask!), as washing doesn't seem to
work....
but it doesn't really fit any of the categories I ca think of, except
that it's a biological stain....

According to my book...
"Pollen: microspores are mainly two layer, the intine inside which is
mostly cellulose and the outer exine layer which is very resistant to
disintegration, extreme heat and strong acids or bases have little effect
on it."
Maybe dye the dressing gown the same shade?

Oops! Thanks for this, it explains a lot - I guess they are engineered
for survival. So, a pollen-yellow dressing gown it is, then!

It's not the pollen per se, it's the particular dye that lily pollen
has. Lilies are known for their ability to stain anything in sight.
a *white* *towelling* dressing gown - so has she tried
a) a boil wash b) bleach?
Though stand by on both of these in case someone comes up with a wizard
solution.
Kay

Good Old Google threw up the following:

I searched online and found some advice, which I followed, and it worked :
First I used sellotape to lift off all the pollen. It took quite a while to
really get off all the loose pollen, leaving just a yellow stain. On the web,
the advice I saw was to then hang the item in the sun to bleach the stain away.
However, this is England, so I decided not to wait for the sun!
Instead, I used a bar of stain removing soap (here in the UK, it's called
Vanish), lathering it up and rubbing on the stain, leaving for a while, then
rinsing and repeating. I did this three or four times until the stain had
noticeably faded quite a bit, then washed the coat in the washing machine as per
the label. The stain has completely gone
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Pollen stains can often be removed from washable fabrics by pretreating them
with an enzymatic detergent such as Era.
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If noticed too late, use a washday pre-treatment before laundering, and hang the
freshly washed clothing in bright sun for several hours, which usually bleaches
any remaining color.
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If you do happen to get the stuff brushed in or wet and the stain won't just
brush off, I've had good luck with Fantastik.
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Hope one of these solutions works !!
I had to repaint a piece of (white) wall once 'cos scrubbing would not remove
the stains !!
Jenny