I have one desert rose that has been growing in the same pot for years and continues to flourish. I had another one too, but had nowhere to put it so gave it to my mum, and that continues to flourish too.
The desert rose is a milk plant and thrives in dry conditions, and also seems to do well in a pot that appears to be too small for the plant. The milk will blister your skin, as I have experienced personally, so care should be taken on the rare occasions when you actually need to trim the plant, or accidentally knock off a leaf or flower.
The flowers look very pretty just floating in a shallow blow of water, but they are not suitable for arrangements. Both the flower and the leaf are very similar in appearance to those of the Frangipani, but a notable difference is that the desert rose flower has little or no fragrance.
The desert rose does produce various colours of flowers, but the relatively common pink one is shown here. The unopened buds would open into bright pink flowers with little or no white.
Aphids love the desert rose, and they can be susceptible to blight also. You can clearly see the tiny yellow aphids in one of the photographs, aphids that keep the ladybugs well fed.
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