Shrimp Plant
Justicia brandegeeana
Arching sprays of coppery bracts that look like little shrimp, a hummingbird favourite, on an easy clump that blooms through the heat. Give it a little afternoon shade so the colour stays rich.
- Mature size
- 2.5 × 2.5 ft
- 0.8 × 0.8 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 9a–11b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium
- Blooms
- Jun–Sep
Shrimp Plant at its mature size
A mature Shrimp Plant grows to about 2.5 ft tall and 2.5 ft wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: UF/IFAS Extension, Texas Master Gardeners.
Through the year
What Shrimp Plant looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Oct–May
Soft green leaves with few bracts.
In flower · Jun–Sep
Drooping coppery salmon-red bract spikes all over.
Growing Shrimp Plant
- Grows well in
- The Southeast, the Plains and Mountain West, and California.
- Good for
- Small space, foundation planting, and pollinators
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Mexico
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Shrimp Plant, that’s about 2.5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Shrimp Plant in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.