I was reading up on a grafting book last night (I know, I know, that's not exactly exciting reading), but I found this bit of 'advice' on hard to root cuttings. Its from "The Grafter's Handbook" by R.J. Garner, Oxford University Press, New York, 1979, found on pp213-218. The technique is called Floor's X cutting. The idea is you approach graft two cuttings, one is the shy to root cutting and one is the easy to root cutting. You form sort of an X (hence the name) and the easy to root cutting then supports and encourages the shy cutting until it can root. Since the two ARE grafted together, you then cut the easy to root variety off above ground after the shy one roots. You can either cut off the easy to root variety's roots or leave it. You would root and stick in cups like any fig cuttings, just have two grafted together sticks in a cup instead of the one. Hope this is interesting and helpful. I know I found it to be interesting.
I forgot to ask, does anyone have much trouble rooting certain varieties? I may try this if I run into a hard-to-root variety, but it would be helpful to know up front, rather than after I have expended the energy in the cutting I am trying to root.
Or put another way, what are the hard-to-root varieties?