An idiot's guide to taking cuttings?

It is looking increasingly possible that we will be moving house at some point in the next 12 months (first time buyers so all a bit vague and deposit-dependant ). However with that in mind I'm starting to make a note of things in the garden I would like to try and take with me, in some shape or form. Lots of that would, ideally, be cuttings, but I have a terrible success rate so far - does anyone have any hot hints or tips to help me improve things??!!

Plants I'm particularly hoping to succeed with include a couple of roses (one climbing, one bush), a tree-like cotoneaster, and a diosma. I tried with the roses and a couple of fuschias last year but not a single one took root

 

Diosma and fuchsia can be propagated from now......I find side shoots best. Or wait until mid summer. Try using half and half perlite and mpc 2nd-bassoon. Water well and cover with polythene bag and place out of direct sunshine.
Cotoneaster similarly.

 

I tend to wait till late July for most woody plants then take semi ripe cuttings of this years growth.

I've had good success by just rooting in water recently.

 

For any roses, I'd recommend stealing. Dig them up now and pot up. Perennials are easiest to "divide" just now and pot up all the healthy looking side growth. Cheap washing up bowls with drainage holes punched in work well, you can mix several plants in.

 

Thanks all - I'll try the perlite tip for sure. Maybe a mix of some in soil and some in water and see how they get on?! And geat shout re washing up bowls - I've got lots of perennials that I was planning on dividing and was dreading the sheer number of individual pots it was going to take!

It has to be cuttings from the roses sadly - one is an established climber that is a good 4m tall, with a trunk like an elephant at the base, and the other is planted over the cat we lost last year, so I'd like to leave it in place and just take a part of it with us.