WOULD ANYONE LIKE SOME SHRIMP? (COLORCHALLENGE MONDAY RED)

I don't mean the kind you eat, but the ones you plant. These beautiful flowers are from a soft wooded, tropical shrub called the Shrimp Plant. I was walking through our local Botanic Gardens, and took these photos. I thought they were really unusual looking, so I did some research and found out they are called Shrimp Plants or Justicia Brandegeeana.

They are native to Mexico, and grow to around 1m tall. It has masses of flowers all year long, that come in a wide variety of colours. It is called the shrimp plant because of its drooping shrimplike flowers. The shrimp plant is easy to grow, and can be kept indoors in containers, providing there is enough light.

Their sprawling evergreen branches can become leggy, so they do well being pruned back at least once a year. This allows it to rejuvinate, and its blooms will come back in abundance.

Photos and content by white.tiger