Question
I read your response of 8/27/03 to Inge.
Helpful, but I do not understand the statement
"Strip off all of the seeds except for the last three or four at the uncut end of the cutting."
Seeds?  Did you mean leaves? Someone brought me a cutting about 12-18" with flowers on the top which I have not yet removed. Each set of leaves
is about 10" long which seems too long to try to start under plastic.
Does it ever work to put directly in the ground and try to cover from sun?  

Answer
Hi Nellie,
Thanx for the question.  Yes, I meant leaves.  You can trim your cutting to 6 inches and remove the bloom.  It's better to get a cutting that does not have a bloom on it.  Blooms take a lot of energy from the cutting.  No, I don't think it will work to stick the cutting in the ground.  What you can do is dig a depression in the ground and take a piece of the vine still attached to the mother plant and put part of it in the depression and cover with soil and then a rock n top of that leaving the rest of the vine out.  By next season, it will have rooted.  YOu can cut it from the mother plant, dig it up and plant it where you want it.  I hope this helps.
Tom