My guess would be that your cuttings rotted because your propagating medium didn't have good drainage. I used the powder rooting compound because it also contained an anti-fungal. My recommendation would be to try using coarse sand as a medium. As far as the water vapor tent, I would still use that, unless of course you're using intermittent mist.

So even the growing tip has a chance of rooting using sand and tent/misting?

Absolutely. I have some in my propagator now that have been there for about 2 weeks. No rot or wilting noted. (Knock on wood!)

Can you root cutting / new shoot in water?

The only success Ive ever had with rooting honeysuckle was this summer using the layer method. You just need to find a stem growing fairly close to the ground maybe two feet long, dig a trench so you can bury a portion of the stem at a node, trim away the leaves around the node and maybe nick or scrape the node, bury this 2-3" in good soil and keep moist, I put a brick or rock over this area. I waited for about 8weeks keeping it moist and making sure I dont cut any part of the stem when mowing. Anyway it was rooting pretty well at the end of this time so I cut it away from the mother plant and potted it up . Heres a couple of shots of it now. This is from coral honeysuckle [major wheeler].

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