The Variegated Thumb

Some of my plants have been surprising me with blooms lately.  I figured the lower sun angle would be enough to trigger dormancy in some plants, even in the 65 degree temperatures of the greenhouse.  But none of my plants are going dormant and some of them are blooming for the first time.

Our neighbor across the street (the one who gave me the Begonia cuttings) is letting me overwinter her variegated Bougainvillea in my greenhouse.  It is in a hanging pot along a rod I installed in the top of the greenhouse and has just been hanging in there.  It didn’t have a lot of leaves when I took it from her and I haven’t seen very many new ones form.  But all of the sudden, it is blooming!  I think I will have to run it over to her house soon (on a warmish day) and show her the blooms.

First blooms from my Bougainvillea plant

I also have a Bougainvillea that was my Mom’s.  She gave it to me about three years ago.  It has had moments of rapid growth and lots of new leaves, but always drops its leaves and looks really sad in the winter - until the greenhouse.  It has been pretty happy this winter in the greenhouse and is actually  producing the first blooms that I have seen on it since it has been in my care!

New blooms on my purple shrimp plant (Justicia scheidweileri)

I bought several Shrimp plants last Spring and Summer, most of which were blooming when I bought them and have continued to do so.  One of them, the Purple Shrimp Plant (Justicia scheidweileri), has been particularly difficult, though.  It wilts quicker than another other plant that I grow.  But it also bounces back quickly and is blooming for the first time since it lost its initial blooms.

After forming some small white flowers, which I didn’t photograph in time, my Ying Yang Bean plants (Phaseolus vulgaris) are now forming pods of new beans.  I hope to get a decent crop from these plants, so that I can keep a bean or two myself and share the others with other local greenhouse owners.

Newest bloom on my yellow Datura

My lime tree and yellow Datura continue to bloom on a regular basis.  I dropped seeds from the Datura parent plant onto the soil under the same plant and some of the have sprouted and are producing new little plants.

Seedlings of my yellow Datura plant

I am anxious to see some of my Hawaiian ginger plants bloom, but that might have to wait until this Summer.  Some of them are quite large now - over 4 foot tall.  I would expect those are pretty close to blooming size.

Just after writing about my shrimp plant collection, I ran across another shrimp plant that I had to have.

The purple shrimp plant (Justicia scheidweileri) goes by many different common names, including Rose Pine, South African Acanthus, Jade Magic and Maracas Brazilian Fireworks.  Mine was labeled with only the last common name and no genus and species names.  But I remembered that it was in the Justicia genus from my research last week when I wrote about shrimp plants.  My collection now contains 5 plants from the Justicia genus and 1 from the Pachystachys genus.

Purple shrimp plant (Justicia scheidweileri)

This plant is very cool, with deep purple sheaths for the long magenta blooms.  In addition to the vibrant blooms, this plant has cool leaves.  There is a prominent silver stripe going down the center vein of each leaf and fainter silver stripes highlighting several other veins on the leaves.  It is not as prevalent in my picture, but you can see some more here.

There are two tropical plants that go by the name of shrimp plant and are fairly easy to find.  They’re still considered sort of oddities, because of their unique bloomage.  The two most popular are the Pink or Red Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana) and the Yellow Shrimp plant or Lollipop plant (Pachystachys lutea).  It is so surprising to me that these two very similar plants do not share the same genus, but their genera are in the same family (Acanthaceae).  When I was in Hawaii, there were yellow shrimp plants that were growing in hedges about 6 feet tall and about 8 feet wide!  Very cool.

Hedge of Yellow Shrimp plants (Pachystachys lutea) at the hotel Napili Surf in Maui, Hawaii.

As you can see, the Yellow Shrimp plants are more woody than the other shrimp plants.  Even my small Yellow Shrimp plant (pictured below) is much woodier than my other shrimp plants of similar size.  So, there are noticeable differences between the shrimp plants of these two different genera.  Also, the leaves of the Yellow Shrimp plant are darker green, more glossy and more deeply veined.

Red Shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana) blooms

I have started a collection of shrimp plants, including five different varieties.  All of them are from the Justicia genus, except for the yellow shrimp plant.  The Justicia genus has several other cool tropical plants that can be container grown, such as the Brazilian Plume (J. carnea), the Firecracker Plant (J. spicigera), and Purple Shrimp Plant (J. scheidweileri).  Each of these plants differs pretty substantially from the other Shrimp plants that are in my collection.

My Shrimp Plant Collection. The pot on the left has Yellow (Pachystachys lutea). The pot on the right has all of my others: Red (Justicia brandegeana), Fruit Cocktail (J. brandegeana 'Fruit Cocktail'), Mexican Plume (J. fulvicoma), and White (J. betonica). The tall stem on the right is the White.

One species that I have in my collection came from Hawaii, where I saw it growing in the wild, not far from the beach.  It is the White Shrimp plant, also called the Squirrel’s Tail (Justicia betonica).    This is probably the rarest of my shrimp plants, in terms of being raised in a container.  The plants that I saw blooming in Hawaii were the only thing growing in a large shady area and all of the blooming tops were about 4 to 5 feet tall.  I’m not sure how likely mine is to bloom in a crowded container, but the plant has been growing well over the past two months.

White Shrimp plant or Squirrel's Tail (Justicia betonica) growing in Maui, Hawaii.

Another cool shrimp plant in my collection is the Mexican Plume (J. fulvicoma), which I got from the Bustani Plant Farm.  I just noticed yesterday that it has begun to bloom.  The usual bracts that are so recognizable among shrimp plants are green for this plant and the actual tubular flowers that come out of the bracts are brightly colored in orange and yellow.

Mexican Plume (Justicia fulvicoma) bloom - one of my favorites

The last of my five varieties is a cultivar called “Fruit Cocktail” (J. brandegeana ‘Fruit Cocktail’).  This one has more yellow-green bracts, with pink tubular flowers.  Mine was blooming when I purchased it, but I forgot to get a picture and now it is out of bloom.

Soon I’ll have to add a Purple Shrimp Plant.  They are a very fun plant to collect and really easy to care for during our long, hot summers.  They enjoy being in full sun, as long as they are watered about once a week.  The White Shrimp Plant is more sensitive to light and would prefer a shadier location.  I have my pot of four different shrimp plants in a semi-shady location and have to keep an eye on the leaves of the White Shrimp plant, which wilt more easily.

Which shrimp plants do you grow?