Darrylene,
My experience at this is very limited as I am just learning also. I believe the roses, forsythia, boxwood are hardwood cuttings,the spirea, potentilla and sandcherry and smokebush are softwood. We've traded before so I'll have your mail address and will try to forward you some info sites I've found on propagation. I was taking cuttings a month ago and broke off an old stick of my blue artic willow, suck it in a small vase and its full of roots. I really enjoy propagation.
Bye for now,
growjo

the difference in soft wood and hard wood is exactly waht it suggests. soft wood is the new green growth which hasn't started to harden. it bends easily and roots relatively quickly though it tends to dry out fast. hard wood is growth which has completely hardened (usually brown or bark covered). these are mostly used for winter propagation. Semi ripe, is a middle ground between the soft wood and hard wood. it strikes best, so I'v ebeen told, and this is what most gardeners use. these are green with a bit of matured growth (bark). you can distinguish semi ripe from soft wood but snapping the branch. soft wood does not snap in half, it merely bends. hardwood is hard to snap. semi ripe cuttings can be snapped without much force, and will produce the characteristic 'pop' sound when snapped off. did I confuse you? lol

I would use the semi-ripe, a couple weeks after flowering. Most of these are quite easy. I don't know what a sand cherry is, but if it's a Prunus (peach, cherry, plum, apricot, etc.) you might try some hardwood, as I mentioned in my reply to the Tri-lite posting. While you will probably get some rooting in water, I think you would have better results with a mix of ½ peat and ½ perlite. Put the mix in a pot, or flat, moisten, treat the cuttings with hormone, and stick. Put the whole thing in a clear plastic bag, out of direct sun. Open, for an hour or so, every couple of days to check moisture, and give them some air.
With the water method, no fertilizer until you have good roots, and then (if at all) very weak solution.
Good Luck.

I've rooted rugosa rose hardwood cuttings successfully in water when they were placed under shoplights the entire time, small baggie over top of cuttings but left open at the bottom.