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Florida Gardening

What kind of shrimp plant is this?

5 years ago

My shrimp plants finally started to bloom, but some of them have pink flowers coming out from between the bracts (the true flowers). I've looked, and the only ones I saw with pink flowers were one called Red Shrimp Plant and one that said it was a mutant of Fruit Cocktail. Anyway, it's really pretty. Some others have normal white flowers coming out. I only originally had three cuttings I got off of plants in a garden area beside a walking trail, so I have no idea what they were supposed to look like, because they weren't blooming at the time.

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Comments (5)

dirtygardener
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
I can't edit, so I'll just add it here. Floridata has a picture of this kind of shrimp plant, so I guess it's just another variety of J. brandegeana. Strange. I really wanted the other kind, but oh well. I'll eventually get one.

https://floridata.com/plant/13
(Jay/Jax FL/Zone 9a)
5 years ago
Yes it is definitely J. brandegeana they have a lot of colors and many are not named (or at least not labeled). I think one of the forms I have matches yours. I have nicknamed it 'Raspberry Jam'. I actually quite prefer the color to the regular rusty red, it is a lot easier to work with IMO and still attracts hummingbirds

What color were you hoping for? I have a chatreuse&white form and UNF has a huge patch of Tutti Frutti in their bamboo garden that you could collect a cutting from (roots very easily).
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Liz, I never even noticed you had not said 'fruit' on the subject line. LOL! Cynthia and all, here on the NW side of San Antonio fruit cocktail shrimp plant is just as hardy and drought tolerant as the red shrimp plant. In a mild winter like last year it didn't freeze all the way back where it was against a wall. The tops that did get nipped and fell over kept the stems green so I just left them in place until spring. Once fruit cocktail is established it comes back very quickly and blooms continually until the first freeze. Well, I take that back. In protected places both the fruit cocktail and the red shrimp flowered all last winter. It gets a little over two feet tall and is very thick and bushy spreading itself around nicely from the roots, and though you will get a few plants coming up from seeds blown around it is not 'invasive.' BTW, I never see anything like a seed pod, but some plants have come up some distance from the original planting so I have to assume it is from seeds. Those volunteer plants don't get much water. They wilt, but I'm amazed they survive and perk back up when I think to water them. It is definitely on my favorite plant list! Incidentally, my 'soil' is shallow black clay over limestome. No bugs bother it and the foliage is healthy and green even when the volunteers come up on pure caliche. Like everything else it gets a few sprinkles of fertilizer now and then.
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dirtygardener
Original Author
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Jay, Raspberry Jam is a very apropos name! I will call mine that too. I just wanted the regular one with the rusty red flowers that droop, but I quite like this one too. I'm going to be looking for a white one. The one I had in North Port grew like mad and the pollinators and hummers loved it. They usually sell those at the big box stores in warmer weather. What does Tutti Frutti look like? Is that the pink one, or is it more like the "Fruit Cocktail?" I'll find them all eventually. I'm trying to find more for my summer garden to feed the hummers. Since the lizards eat all my caterpillars, trying to breed butterflies is pointless.

I'm in Gainesville, so Jacksonville is a bit far to come for shrimp plant cuttings. LOL Yes, I know they are easy to root. I got mine from cuttings I "rescued" from some trailside garden plants. I love "rescuing" plants, although I usually have to wait a long, long time for them to bloom.
(Jay/Jax FL/Zone 9a)
5 years ago
Oh I think I meant fruit cocktail because it looks like that one, so hot pink with green bracts. Think Tutti Fruitti is the name of an Agastache cultivar lol

and oops yeah sorry I got you confused with some Jax members that would be a bit far!

the white one is often sold under 'Yellow Queen' (chartreuse/yellow green bracts and white flowers) but big box stores generally do not label it
dirtygardener
Original Author
5 years ago
Jay, I wish I was in Jax. Y'all seem to have the coolest plants!

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