Great thread idea! I look foward to seeing everyone's suggestions! The only one of your listed plants that I've rooted successfully is the salvia. I take cuttings about 6 to 8 inches, just below a leaf node, strip all but the top 4 to 6 leaves and stick it in a pot of potting soil with about half sand mixed in. At least two sets of nodes under the soil. I do as many as I can stuff into the pot and then soak it down and keep it outdoors but in shade. Be sure to keep pinched off any flower buds. Some years I just stuck them into pots that already had other plants in them if that plant provided enough shade. With almost daily pot watering this time of year it has worked well. Then other than watering, ignore them!

Of the plants you listed the only ones I have propagated are salvia and baptisia. The only practical ways to propagate baptisia is either through division or seed, if you have a species and not an infertile hybrid. Cuttings are difficult and have to be taken in early spring.

Some sources say to soak baptisia seed before sowing, but I just sow it in potting mix. Water and heat from the sun do the rest. Often the seeds will not germinate until the weather really warms up. Baptisia seedlings require good air circulation so the best place to place the pots is out in the full sun. Otherwise the seeds may rot before they germinate and the young plants will damp off.

I would think lantana would be easy to root, like verbena. I don't have misters, I never cover anything with plastic (stuff always rots). I just stick cuttings in potting mix (not topsoil, that packs), water, and put in complete shade. I use my front porch since I don't have a tree close enough to the house that provides complete enough shade. I water the cuttings every day, since they are in small pots.

I have had many failures with cuttings this year however, and I think it's due to the wind, which has been a blessing... and a curse.

I haven't tried to root Russian sage, but a medium that's half sand is probably necessary. I couldn't root Buddleia until I started mixing potting mix with sand and since then I've rooted about a dozen.

According to Michael Dirr spirea is easy to root from softwood cuttings taken in May-August, and the seed requires no pre-treatment. Loropetalum is fairly easy to root from softwood cuttings taken in summer as well.

I use at least half (or more) perlite in my mix, especially with woody perennials like the ones you've listed. Helps keep the stems from rotting while they root. I never have been able to find the really coarse builder's sand, and the fine stuff didn't drain well enough for me, so I don't use it for my cuttings. Take cuttings early in the morning, before the plants wilt with the heat of the day.

Alicia, have you done clematis cuttings? I was going to try rooting some 'Roguchi' for the fall swap and am not sure what kind of growth I should work from. It's blooming pretty heavily right now, so there not may be anything suitable, but if I know what to look for I'll give it a shot.

I root most things in straight vermiculite in a small porch sized greenhouse with a humidifier set on a timer. Lantana has always been easy for me. The one time I tried to root spirea, every cutting took quickly, so that was easy too. I have rooted Russian sage, but it was difficult. I like to use clear plastic cups so I can see when roots have developed. Otherwise I tend to get impatient and tug on the cuttings just when they've started to root and ruin them.
Dana

Karen,
I haven't tried clematis cuttings; Dirr recommends using cuttings taken in summer: "single internodes with cuts between the nodes" works well he says.

I've been using leveling sand that DH picked up from Lowe's and that has worked well in a mix with Buddleia, catmint, and calamintha cuttings.

I don't know which artemesia you have but 'Powis Castle' has rooted well for me with softwood cuttings. I was planning on trying some of those now but in the past have done them earlier in the season as soon as the stems were firm and long enough. Salvias have been the easiest plants to root for me. I've read somewhere about softwood cuttings that you bend the stems until you get to point where it snaps- anything softer is too small. My biggest challenge has been providing enough shade for them. Right now I have a laundry basket and a small plastic table on my full sun deck draped with sheets and bricks on top. The salvia cuttings underneath appear to be doing fine. I check them daily to make sure they don't dry out.

Thanks Alicia. If I see any likely growth I'll give it a try. I typically research the hell out of these things and then just wing it in the end.

I just noticed a rose bud opening on one of the cuttings I struck from the roses Tammy brought to the swap last fall. The cutting's only ~8" tall. I had no idea it would do that. Talk about positive reinforcement.

spirea is really easy.....lorapetalum is pretty tough. It can be done though. I have had my best sucess using Oasis Grow Cubes. Take the cuttings of hardened off new growth and set up a mist sprinkler head for them. Get some good rooting hormone and dip the ends in the hormone and stick them in the grow cube. Get a sprinkler timer from lowes and set it to water 4 times a day for maybe 30 seconds each time. Set all this up in the shade. If you do this now, the cuttings will all be well rooted before winter. Pot them up into 4" pots and overwinter. In the spring, re-pot into one gallon pots and you will have some pretty nice plants for next years trade. This method works great for me, no matter what I am rooting.

I have three techniques that work for me:

First of all I take a million cuttings. Only a few will make it to adulthood and if I have a good year I have extras to take to the swap. I don't do anything special, in fact I rarely use rooting hormones; I don't use a mister; sometimes I cover with plastic. I don't have huge success but I also don't put out a huge effort either.

I wait til the days are very humid (like now). A lot of things that require high humidity and bottom heat will root just fine now in the blistering part of summer. I also try to use rainwater for the initial soaking (or until I see growth) but this year there isn't any around.

For stuff that needs a lot of time to devlope the corky woody tissue that forms roots (some plants will form roots on any tissue, a few will on green stems, but most require the woody tissue to form roots) - I scar the area first and let it form a knot of woody tissue first and then I either air layer it (I use aluminum foil around a wad of soaked potting soil), or just snip it off and stick it in damp soil in a small pot. I remove most of the leaves and cut the few remaining leaves in half, that way when new leavs form I can easily see them.

With hydrangeas and spirea, I get about a 98% sucess rate. With loropetalums, I get about 75%. I think it's worth the little extra effort to get sucess. Taking all those cuttings is the hard part...once they are stuck the sprinkler does all the work until it's time to pot them up. You don't need a greenhouse.....just a couple of wood pallets on cement blocks set in the shade somewhere.

I sure wish I lived close enough to come to one of the raleigh swaps.