Reader's question: Mr Wilson brought me a plant specimen to identify. The flower resembled that of the thistle, but instead of having purple petals, it was a bright vibrant yellow, flecked with a shocking orange. He said that it had reached a height of about a metre and was growing underneath his bird table. He wanted to know what the plant was, where it came from and what it might be doing in his garden.

It wasn’t a plant that I had ever come across before. It certainly wasn’t anything in the hawkbit or milk thistle family. None of my reference books had anything resembling it in them either. There was only one course of action; I had to ring and ask my botanist-trained mother. It wasn’t until I got home and had done that heavy end-of-day slump onto the sofa that she rang back and excitedly revealed the answer. The plant was a safflower (Carthamus tinctorius).

The safflower is a spike-laden herbaceous annual that can grow up to four feet high. It has an enormous tap root, which means that it can grow in fairly arid ground.

It originates from Arabia, western Asia and northern Africa where it started out life as one of mankind’s oldest crop plants. Traditionally it was grown for its seeds, which were (and still are) used for making a colourless culinary oil that is lower in saturated fat than olive oil. It is also used to make a synthetic insulin in the medical world.

Safflower oil can be used in place of linseed oil in painting as it does not have the yellow tint of linseed and thus produces a purer colour. The petals produce an orangey red dye and can be used as a cheaper and additive-free substitute for saffron (known as “bastard saffron”) Finally, it is also sometimes used in bird seed mixes instead of sunflower seeds, which explains how it came to be growing underneath Mr Wilson’s bird table.

Jobs his week

■ GET a head start by sowing sweet peas now. The thick pods benefit from a soaking overnight in water, which helps soften them, allowing for germination. They like a long pot in which to send down their roots.

The best solution to this is to use toilet roll tubes as they can be planted whole in the ground and will naturally disintegrate, preventing any root disturbance.

■ CHECK onions still left in the ground to make sure that they are not rotting off. Place any harvested onions in a warm but dry, and if possible, sunny place for a week or so. They will store much longer this way.

■ NOW is a good time to move any evergreen shrubs or conifers. Try to make sure that you dig out as big a root ball as possible so that they get as little disturbance as possible, and remember to water thoroughly on planting, and then regularly every day for the first month or so.

Brigid presents the BBC Tees Gardening show on Sundays from 1pm to 2pm. Questions can be answered on the day by emailing brigidpress@bbc.co.uk anytime during the week, or texting 07786-200995 and phoning 01642-225511 during the show.