The answers are mid BUT based on 50 years experience.... I prefer sand since will not hold water & promote funfal growth. the water is needed to reduce transporation & should be on the leaves the stem base should be damp not wet. survival time of cuttings depends on temp (40F best) they are stored & if cuttings has a chance to dry out. doing inside best since may control temperature (soil) humidity, soil composition air circulation. these may be transplanted this year.... you do NOt change the genetics of a cutting by rooting it or grafting it....if original tree was pink then the rooted cutting will be pink (it should be noted that most dogwoods flower pink but the flowers FADE to white several days later. & red dogwoods will fade to pink 3-4 days later.
the number of cuttings that root will be increased If you use a rooting hormone.

Thanks for the reply.
If I understand right, you think the "Easy Propagation Chamber" method is best, but use sand instead of peat moss. When you say "transplanted this year", do you mean into pots or straight into the ground.

I use both methods. I built the cloning machine for softwood cuttings and herbaceous perennials. I get better success using the cloner only on those kinds. For hardwood and semi-hardwood cuttings, I use Janie's chamber. I have one sitting in the edge of the woods now with rooting fig cuttings. I tried indoors, but they all died save two. Outside, 7 of the 10 cuttings are putting out new growth and no doubt, roots. I stuck them in February and walked away.

The cloner needs lots of attention. One bad case of fungus and all the plants get ruined. That's the problem I have thanks to the size of the one I built. Now I understand why some people use smaller ones.

I have not had success rooting my dogwood or japanese maples. I prefer to grow them from seed which I am doing this year.

But in the outdoor chamber, I use sand. I use plain builder's sand from Lowe's. Granted, what you get in your area might be different, but this has several sizes of particles mixed in. It holds plenty of water, but also allows air to move through the mixture. The various particles help with that. I have tried potting soil, soiless mixes, peat and sand, and still have the best success using just sand. It's also much easier to remove rooted cuttings.

I would like to grow from seeds,..but with the pink dogwood I read that dogwood seeds are white and the only way to get pink is to bud or graft them. I don't know how to do this exactly. I wish I could find a good write up with images on this.
I will try to use the cuttings and see what happens.