Has anyone ever tried to root cuttings with hormone powders?

I am trying my hand at taking cuttings and growing them with the help of a rooting hormone. I have never done this before and it is very intimidating to me. My property is quite old so there are a lot of beautiful old shrubs I'd like to duplicate. So far I have taken cuttings from a flowering almond, flowering quince, mountain laurel, cotoneaster and a butterfly bush. Does anyone have any advice about the process?

This should help you out.
http://www.sunset.com/sunset/garden/article/0,20633,1567084,00.html

Lynn

I have done this with cati and succulents many times- usually with success, I have not used it on shrubs though. I let the end of the cutting heal up for a few days so it won't rot when its put into soil, often there will be tiny hairs of new roots starting to show. Then I wet the end and dip it into the powder, if it is small enough, or dust some on with a spoon (NOT ONE FOR FOOD!) for larger things. I wear a dust mask when using this stuff - I don't know that it is particularly harmful, but it is a hormone, and dusty bits of most anything aren't great for the lungs.

With cacti/succulents you do need to let cuttings callus over before putting them in soil, but with non-succulents you don't let them sit--get them dipped in hormone and put into whatever medium you're using for rooting sooner rather than later.

I just snipped them and dipped, then tucked them into soil. As I said it looked pretty intimidating so I just jumped into it rather naively. It won't be a loss, since it just me experimenting with some cuttings for practice. However it would be nice to pass along some nice propagated plants to family and friends!

Certain plants probably benefit from rooting hormones, but many root so easily it's not worth the trouble and expense and exposure to a hormone. In general, the more "herblike" the cutting, the easier to root, and the more woody the cutting, the harder. For the latter, rooting hormone is likely useful.

I didn't know that but I am still new to this...I know for sure that Rhodes are more difficult to root because they are "woody" but I don't know about any of the others because they are still young shrubs that don't look woody to ME plus a lot of the plants I have bought I have never planted before nor seen in their maturity- Like the mountain laurels and flowering quince, for instance.
I tried rooting something in just water once but the cutting began getting pretty moldy-looking. I don't know what I did wrong which is why I opted for a higher stimulus. Plus the info I got referred to; hardwood cuttings, softwood cuttings, semi-hardwood cuttings. I got overwhelmed and stuck them all in!

Rooting in water was part of your problem. The only plants that should be rooted in water are aquatic plants. All others should be rooted in a potting mix, or even a perlite and sand mixture. Water roots and soil roots are not interchangeable. Anything to be grown in soil should be rooted in a soil-like medium. This is the most common question I see, and as many times as it has been answered it amazes me that most people have never heard of the concept. Pardon me if that sounds rude, but it just astounds me.

Of course, if you have cuttings that you can't pot up immediately, putting them in water to keep them from drying out and dying is the thing to do. But they need to be put in a potting mix or a suitable alternative as soon as possible.

So in other words, I can do the same procedure I am doing with my cuttings but without the hormone and get success?; ie; Add cutting to potting mixture+keeping the soil moist in a warm place with no actual direct light, etc? I guess I have to research more into it. I don't think you were rude. I am new to most concepts of gardening but what I have tried in the past and succeeded with I had researched into heavily and experimented. Silly as it sounds, I always thought propagation was a big mystery- if I had known it was pretty easy I would have done it years ago!