 
Very appropriately named, the shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana) looks like it is covered with cooked shrimp. The flowers of the plant are white and they are surrounded by an elongated string of light red bracts. This is a rather frost tender plant and it dies back quite a bit in the winter, but has never frozen out. There is a yellow species, the golden shrimp plant (Pachystachys lutea), that is more likely to freeze out and is only suitable as a container plant. We started with one red shrimp plant and it isn't very big even though it is several years old. It probably needs more water than it receives, or perhaps better soil (you mean clay isn't good enough?). It is protected from the hot sun by a large tree and other plants, so it survives without really thriving. The plant does send out underground runners and so I moved one of the offshoots from the original plant to a more open space with better soil where it also receives more water. This plant is now doing very well and has even bloomed, although spends much of the summer looking wilted.
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