Earlier in the season, I brought home a Japanese maple and Japanese black pine. I normally stay clear of both of these subjects, as they don't do well in the Phoenix heat. Nonetheless they're in my garden now.
The maple was a yearling and tall. I decided to severely prune it back, keeping the top cutting as decoration for my kitchen. I have it in some water and I secretly hoped beyond hope that it would take. I'm no fool; I know how notoriously difficult Japanese maple cutting are in taking. I'm also the eternal optimist. Nothing ventured, nothing gained - and I had little to lose in keeping my cutting, even if only for a little while. I placed the cutting in a small cup of water in my kitchen window. This cup also happened to have a small ficus cutting which had just begun to root.
I'm not quite ready to call success to this cutting, but I noticed some powdery white nodes on the trunk, very similar to what new roots look like. Maybe it's just rotting.