I cut off three branches about 16" in length and 1/2 pencil thickness from a large, healthy indoor ficus benjamina. I braided them, dipped them in rooting hormone and stuck them into potting soil, and watered them every day, never letting the soil dry out.
Over the following days, all of the leaves got curly, dried out, and fell off. (There were dozens of leaves to start with.) It's been three weeks and two of them have lost all their leaves and only one of them has four leaves left. That one may make it, but it is now intertwined with two dead ficus corpses. Should I keep hoping on the other two or give up? Is there anything I should have done differently?
Update: all three of them died. I pulled them up and there was no sign of any rooting at all. They must have tried to keep their leaves alive instead of growing roots.
