I have a crape myrtle seedling that I rescued last fall and it's been overwintering in a pot on my porch.

I know that it's been a very warm spring but this still seems exceptional to me. Here in south jersey crape myrtles don't normally show any life until the last week of april at the earliest.

I work at a garden center and none of the dozens of crape myrtles we have there, of any size, are even showing the slightest sign of breaking dormancy. Meanwhile mine had swollen buds over a week ago, and began popping leaves this week.

I'm not sure how to imbed images here, but here's a link to a picture I took of it this morning. http://i.imgur.com/iynAy.jpg