Sunfleurpower, personally I would take at least the tip cutting as insurance against losing the lower stem. two cuttings give you extra insurance. Put them in water to rehydrate since you said leaves are soft. Unless you've been successful with other propagating methods, leaving them in water to root until spring or early summer is probably best. Obviously winter is a bad time to be rooting a plant by any method. Leave at least one dark green leaf on the base stem, that yellowing leaf will fall off eventually.

I think you'll be able to save at least the top cutting, but I have extra propagations of obovata if you need another.

Thank you Russ! I'll take cuttings today. I bought a warming pad a few days ago with propagating in mind, so hopefully that will create better conditions for fast rooting.

I'm still learning about watering and reading the leaves. I have an australis Lisa that I got in November last year as a lightly rooted cutting and came with a little rot. I potted it up in a small clay pot and watered sparingly because the seller recommended going easy with the water. The leaves never really plumped up so I chopped and propped recently into a perlite/coir mix with just enough water to dampen the mix completely but not run out if tipped and I'm waiting somewhat impatiently. I'll say that the leaves are much firmer now than they had ever been, so looks like I was severely underwatering. That kind of resilience gives me hope that obovata will do ok, but I'll keep your kind offer in mind in case if gets really bad... Thank you!

I like Russ' advice! I did the same thing with my Mathilde about two weeks ago. I left two leaves on the original root system and moved it into a smaller pot. I put that pot into a cloche to retain some extra humidity. Then I took the rest of it and cut it up into three separate cuttings. I have two of them in leca and the other one in damp perlite in a prop box. I figured I would try multiple methods as insurance.

Keep us posted!

Thanks Russ and popmama! I took two cuttings from obovata and they're sitting on my heating pad in a mason with sphagnum/perlite + humidity. I left two mature leaves on the base stem, but I think I'll add a bag over the top and a cup of water just to give it a little extra love. The leaves on the cutting are starting to firm up again, but the original lowest leaves are still soft in the pot. I watered them yesterday after about a week so if they don't feel different by the end of this week, I may move to take them out and reroot; they are such nice, big leaves. Hoping for good result!

Sounds good. I'm probably preaching what you already know as you seem experienced, but be careful about closing completely, leave an opening or let some air exchange once in awhile. Too much moisture and humidity has some risk for rotting cuttings.

Far from experienced Russ! I've got less than a year so far, but I've been doing my reading and trying to learn and practice good methods to save myself heartache. Losing plants to rot is so disappointing, I'll keep ventilation in mind.