Go to a good nursery and ask them for some of the potting soil that they use. Unless it's some home made stuff, it'll most likely be bark based. It might contain some perlite and a few other ingredients. If it's not bark based, go looking elsewhere maybe. Other potting soils might work, but I use one from Scott which is a professional mix and is bark based. This potting soil and most of the ones that professionals use will contain only a small amount fertilizer to get your plants going. You don't really want any fertilizer at all to start your cuttings, but a small amount won't hurt. Too much and your cuttings will rot. Your cuttings will take a few weeks to develop roots and then you can begin to add some fertilizer. Get a little bit of the expensive Osmocote and use it. It will slowly release fertilizer for you. Just a little to start. That's all there is to it. When I finally pot up my Hydrangeas, I use about half potting soil like this, one fourth old shredded bark mulch that I have around, and maybe one fourth leaf mold and/or compost to introduce some microbes and give it some life and to provide some basic ingredients. I also throw in some rock phosphate and greensand just to be sure. Like maybe a tablespoon or so of each per gallon of mix. I doubt you could add too much. It's just rock and sand. Good luck. Hay If the plants look anemic, I'll

This is a non variegated young one at a nursery but when I looked at the base it appeared to have almost a dozen shoots coming out of the ground. It almost looked as if a V-shaped cutting was set horizontally under the soil. I went back the next day to get a closer pic of the base but it was gone: I'm new to these but this looked like a more than exemplary specimen. It's very tempting at $19 but I'm holding out for a variegated one due to space limitations. Here's a pic of it next to a Hope Philo (right side) unless that's not the correct name:

Pure water is fine. Start feeding after it potted with decent roots formed.

I would get it out of the water, rinse it off really well. Cut off anything thats mushy. Get some powdered rooting hormone (Rootone is usually available at home depo, lowes etc. that has a fungicide in it) Dust the cut parts in the hormone. Put it in potting soil with a lot of perlite added. Place it in a smaller pot with good drainage holes. Put it under a plant light. Keep it well watered but dont let the pot sit in water.