Our Rain Barrel Tree

About 2 months ago, my mom gave us a Crepe Myrtle tree baby for our backyard. Her trees grow side shoots so we get the babies. I didn't have time to plant it right away but knew it needed to be kept moist... logical place would be to dunk it in the rain barrel, right? LOL
I hoped it wouldn't rot by the time we planted it. I soon forgot it was there. About a month later the leaves were still lush and I pulled it up to look at it. The bottom root had all these little root hairs and it looked like it was doing just fine. I put it back in the barrel and waited for the energy to plant it. Well, a month later it was my husband that found the energy.
You should have seen the tiny roots it had grown! I wish I had taken a picture of them. It looked like a shaggy caterpillar. It had also grown little leaves all along the branches... even the ones under water.
You can see a bit of the tiny leaves on the branches in this picture... though it's a bit blurry.
Jon dug a hole and added compost to the bottom of it because, as you can see, we have a lot of clay in our soil. Evan helped supervise.

So, here it is. Our Crepe Myrtle baby. We're keeping it well watered and it seems happy enough so far. It just bloomed bright pink blossoms. (note to self, take more pictures)