I got several cuttings from the The Davis germplasm  and decided to perform an experiment. Since I was only able to obtain one cutting per variety I decided to double my chances by cutting each piece in two. What I found was that the uncut ends were much slower to callus and the new cut ends callused and rooted very quickly. Has anyone else noted this phenomenon when rooting cuttings that have been sitting for a while? Would it be wise to make a habit of trimming the ends off of older (stored in the fridge) cuttings before rooting? 

That does make sense to me, not many of my cuttings calloused during storage in the fridge. I let cut ends air dry for a day, maybe I should not?

I always cut off at least a 1/4 inch from any cutting to get a fresh contact with rooting hormone, and a nice callus.  I also cut my cuttings in 2 - 3 pieces because my rooting area is too short, even a nice 2-3 inch piece rooted well similar to what Bass(I think) did.  The only problem I've been having is with panachee the ones with no terminal buds are slow to break but have a 4 inch pot half full of roots.

I have also noted that some cuttings root like mad but then take forever to put out any leaves. I rooted a Panache with three branches and three terminal buds. The cutting filled the cup with roots and I ended up transplanting it to a one gallon pot before any leaves grew. Now one of the terminal buds has produces three nice leaves. The other two appear to be completely dormant.