This should be in top tips but..

Simply go for a walk with some snippers & plastic container with a small wad of moist cotton wool in it.

Take cuttings surreptitiously from parks & overhanging boundaries.

Store them in the container & plant up when you get home immediately in the normal way.

I've had great success with this method nicking euonimus, hebe, other semi-ripe cuttings :hihi: norty or what?

Naughty it may be, but it's one of the reasons that my granddad has such a fabulous garden- copious visits to the Botanical Gardens in Brum, with a plastic bag and some damp cotton wool in his pocket, and very sharp thumbnails.

I had to admire his barefaced cheek, even when I was cringeing with embarrassment.

Some people take it a step further and turn up with a transit and a spade, and whip your mature shrubs :rant:

hiya id love my plants trees etc in my garden but pretty useless. there must be more to this than just snipping a branch off and sticking in cottonwool before planting. how do you prepare the branch before planting to ensure it grows??

This is from the RHS website F_M Taking semi-ripe cuttings (http://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profiles0800/semi_ripe.asp), it's fairly simply explained, but if you need any more in depth description,
I'd recommend typing into Google
TAKING CUTTINGS FROM [NAME YOUR PLANT] and see what comes up :thumbsup: