I was just playing around. Here is a recipe I cook at home. Beef fillet steak with mountain pepper sauce. Grind in a mortar and pestle about 6 large dried mountain pepper leaves with half a teaspoon of sea salt. Crush 3 cloves of garlic and rub the garlic and a little olive oil into 4 premium fillet steaks. Sprinkle the mountain pepper leaf and salt mixture liberally over the steaks and rub in by hand. Cover the meat and allow to sit at room temperature for the flavours to infuse. Slice potato and sweet potato into rounds about 5 mm thick. Partially boil them in salted water making sure they are just still firm. Thinly slice an onion into whole rounds. Layer the potato, sweet potato and onion into an oiled baking dish. Pour half a cup of cream over the potatoes, season with pepper and a little freshly grated nutmeg. Pop into a hot oven (fan forced if available) until brown on top. Add a tablespoon of butter to a hot pan and fry the steaks for around 2 minutes each side, cook them to your liking but DO NOT OVER COOK. They should feel firm by still springy when pressed with a fork. Remove the steaks from the pan and allow to rest briefly whilst preparing the sauce. Add a good swig of red wine to the pan to deglaze, remove from the heat. In a mortar and pestle grind a teaspoon of mountain pepper berries and 4 or 5 dried bush tomatoes (Solanum centrale). Add this to the wine in the pan together with a tablespoon of honey, a knob of butter and a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar. Simmer briefly, transfer the steaks back into the oven to reheat (pour any juices into the sauce pan). Cut a triangular section of the potato bake and place in the centre of a PREHEATED plate. Slice the fillet steaks almost all the way through in strips creating a fan shape. Arrange on top of the potatoes (work fast or it'll go cold). Simmer the sauce to reheat and pour through a sieve over the meat and drizzle a little around the plate for effect. Serve immediately.

Tony said: [i]I can't recall ever visiting a native nursery in Qld that doesn't stock Gr. venusta. [/i] I suspect that you are right - I have even seen it at Bunnings, but I can accept that it may be endangered in terms of its numbers in the wild. Large tracts of Byfield have been subsumed for commercial timber plantations, and I'm sure that other parts of it were cleared for agriculture back when few realised the value of virgin bushland. One of the locals sells ferns at the Rocky markets, and he recalls seeing 'huge' Byfield ferns (Bowenia Serrulata) being torn out of the ground by bulldozers - particularly tragic when you realise how slow these plants are to reach maturity. On a happier note, I consider both the flower and foliage of G. Venusta to be extremely attractive, and even more so when companion planted with its hybrid, G. 'Orange Marmalade' (G. venusta X G. glossadenia). A real contrast to the lighter, sparser foliage of the other tropical Grevilleas in my front garden. Cheers, Artie

It's found in all states, albeit in dryer areas. About the only thing that R. spinescens isn't tolerant of is poorly drained sites. It's known in ornamental horticulture as being a good plant in coastal areas due to its tolerance of salt pray, so perhaps it's worth a try. Considering how dry it's been in Brisbane of late, I don't see why you couldn't grow it successfully. It's also very tolerant of compaction. Like I said, the only thing I'm aware of in terms of how finicky this plant is would be poor drainage. I'd give it a go, Lynne.

It's always worth a try. Some plants though will only rot if kept watered during the dry season. The factors behind going dormant are variable. With annuals flowering and seed production often produces chemicals that instruct the plant to shut down all its functions and die. Some plants with tubers (which includes many Droseras) need that break for important processes within the tuber to be carried out. It's all part of a required cycle for them, basically built into the system. I have a moss on some trees that during the dry season appears dried and dead. If watered it becomes green again. It would probably work in a terrarium. On the other hand Adiantum philippense flourishes in the wet season of rock faces but during the dry season dies back and is barely noticeable. I put some in a pot in the garden where it got water all year. Over a couple of wet seasons the plants have thinned out to where only a few remain now. I think the dry season watering is doing more harm than good. If you're thinking of growing the Petiolaris-complex Droseras, they like very high heat. Check some when there's a bit of a break in the monsoon, after a couple of sunny days the water they're in is quite hot, yet they thrive. Other plants would keel over. You'd have to try and replicate those conditions in the dry season. And then it might not work if they're also geared to day length, or will just automatically shut down after a certain fixed length of time. You'd be on a steep learning curve with this, but there's only one way you'll find out whether it'll work for any particular plant, or not. Good luck with it.