The author uses a plastic basin and moist paper towels to keep her cuttings fresh. Remove leaves to create wounds so the rooting hormone can gain entry into the stem. Cover the wounds with hormone to boost the shoot's root producing capability and to prevent rot. Trim each set of leaves to minimize transpiration loss. After I've wounded the cutting, I dip the end of the stem into water and then into rooting hormone powder.
Softwood cuttings root more successfully when a rooting hormone is used.
The object when dipping cuttings in rooting hormone is to cover the wounds completely. Rooting hormone contains the same auxins already in the stem that initiate root production. Coating the stem with hormone boosts the plants' natural mechanisms to produce roots. I'm careful never to dip cuttings directly into a jar of rooting hormone powder for fear that the cutting may contain a contaminant. To be on the safe side, I empty a small amount of the hormone into another container and dip my cuttings into that.