I've been watching a lot of BBC garden shows and one thing they all insist on is LOTS OF SHARP GRIT/Gravel. Also, I notice they do not use rooting hormone ever. As for the grit, this might be the secret because I've noticed that my arborvitae hedge scatters seeds everywhere but they ONLY ONLY come up when they fall into the pebbles between pavers in my grape arbor. And then they flourish...I've got a little forest of them in there now. Same with the lavender. I never had luck with lavender seeds until I tried planting them in a bed of gravel (because they come up on their own in the gravel in the walk). I suspect this may hold the key for cuttings too...it keeps the stem uniformly moist but allows lots of air to circulate around it too. I also suspect that the powdered rooting hormone may work against me...I wonder if the powder (probably some sort of cornstarch) clogs up the "tubes" in the stems. That would both prevent water from going up and would also trap any bacteria within the stem.
Here's another thing: I got several cuttings of a miniature rose from a friend (thru the mail). The ones I stuck in sterilized rooting medium with hormone all went black and died within days. The one I stuck in a bottle of water on the windowsill ROOTED and is growing like crazy in the garden now. The bottle was green glass.
I'm going to keep trying, but it is discouraging! The only no fail rooting I've done is sweet potatoes (edible and ornamental) in jars of water.
