Wow! What a great story! Bringing a plant back to life is one of the best feelings. Congrats!

Crepe Myrtles happen to be very popular in my town. About half of my neighborhood got together and lined our street with them. Its going to be so much fun when they get bigger and bloom. We might just have to start an annual crepe myrtle bloom party. :)

I really enjoyed your story. Great to see that you can essentially butcher a plant and it will still survive. That gives me confidence that my amateur methods won't kill too many plants!

We have a 2' tall crepe myrtle in our front yard that we planted last year. I was worried it hadn't survived the drought, but I pruned it a bit yesterday and there seemed to be some life in it yet.

Growing up, we had an 6'-to-8' crape myrtle. By the pool. Nothing like a bajillion of myrtle flower petals to clog the pool filter and generally make a mess.

Quite pretty, though.