The slime is pretty common in water rooting, I think it's called mucky film or something quaint like that but like everyone has said, just rinse it off every few days when you change the water. I've had great success with rooting in water, I've had some spectacular fails too. The big game changer for me was actually changing the water and rinsing the film off. I didn't do it for years and easily 75% of my plants trying to root in water rotted. I'm currently experimenting with cuttings from an ancient hearty pothos using a rooting hormone in water. Seems a bit counterintuitive but it appears to be working nicely and almost halved the time it normally takes for the nodes to root out.

Well I figure I should give an update, mostly because the in-the-moment decision making and the nature of learning what to expect and how to behave and everything else that comes with experience was a useful lesson for me that may benefit others. So a quick summation. I have had about a 10% success rate on my first flurry of cuttings using the burrito method. Considering all the places I did things "wrong" as I went along I actually consider it a success. I didn't properly go through my received cuttings to make cuts at budding points so I had tips far away from where the plant would naturally send them, occasional missed watering, over attentive watering, and such were all mistakes along the way. The decision to stick many of the calloused cuttings in the dirt with still a month or 2 of questionable weather wasn't so dreadful as I originally thought. More plants have started to stir and awake, granted some are just now putting out their first leaves, but point being, that when I stuck them outside it was more of a "may as well see, and pull out dead sticks when weeding later," instead of just tossing them out when I got tired of potting up my mess of cuttings. It did snow a couple times after I planted them outside, and we definitely had some freeze/thaw cycles. More than I was obviously hoping for when I planted them. I moved some of my leafed out cuttings to the garden. Where 2 promptly died, and 4 are still very slowly growing. The plants are still tiny. The couple I have in the house will be going outside soon. I found a slight spider-mite infestation on one of the few I have indoors so I figure it is time to let natures little bug eaters help me take care of the issue. I will say that a couple of the plants were much more likely to root than others. Heirloom and Mr. Lincoln putting out 3x more plants than the other successful varieties, and of course some I didn't get any to stick. However, those 2 were among the ones I wanted the most, and now that I have them, I have that intense satisfaction. I actually bought an heirloom from Walmart anyway because it was discounted to $6 and was a gallon plant in good condition, just with spent blooms. I doubt that I will get any flowers from these tiny little specimen this year. I suspect, that in future, I will opt to purchase my initial plants and then take cuttings from those for gifts, back ups and filling out beds. Thanks everyone so much for the help so far in my rose obsession.

I just got a potbound dwarf monstera and googled this idea. I have tried the emergent aquatic plant filtration method for a couple years both indoors and outdoors with platy subtropical fish and pothos, equisitum, papyrus, elephant ear, the tradescantias, spider plant, even yellow nutsedge I pulled from the storm water ditch, big box store orchid, anything I knew rooted easily in water that came my way. As mentioned above, the main problem was light levels. The pothos died in any sun and the equisitum and papyrus needed full sun (or a high pressure sodium bulb beam). Many plants became chlorotic too easily because I was nervous about ammonia levels for the fish so did frequent water dilutions. I am going to try some monstera pieces in my indoor "pond" and am reviving this thread to read about what others are trying. I cannot think of a better way to learn the basics of aquaculture.

I have never tried this, but was reading about it in some textbooks on propagation my DH brought home. They say you can use the smaller feeder roots or the larger ones, cutting them between 1"-3". Put them on a couple of inches of substrate and cover with and inch or two of medium. The cuttings can be laid horizontally or vertically. If placed vertically be sure to get the polarity correct so that it's how they grew naturally ie. bottom part of root facing downward. It's also suggested to cut the bottom at an angle for roses. Concerning the planting medium, it was not specified, but referred to as "planting" medium as opposed to "rooting" medium, which I take to mean a more nutrient rich mix. I've done this often with other easy rooting plants such as those in the mint family with great success. (Too great sometimes!) : ) Let us know if you try it and your results. Most of mine aren't large enough yet, or if they are they root easily and truthfully, I don't need anymore New Dawn. : ( However, I have to transplant a huge one in March, so maybe I'll try this out. I don't think she'd miss a few roots.