Do florescent grow lights work well? I'm thinking about setting up a area
in
my basement to start some cuttings. Any info or ideas for setting up an
area
would help. What worked and didn't work.

They work, but not that well, as they aren't terribly high-intensity.
With the plants within a few inches to a foot of the lamps, however, you'll
probably see decent results. Natural sunlight can deliver as much as 1000
watts per yard. Because the intensity of light from fluorescent diminishes
with distance, to get even a small portion of the intensity that sunlight
can deliver, you need a lot of fluorescents, and you need to be awfully
close to them.

Another option would be to use HID lighting, such as metal halide or
sodium lamps. If you're not going for large amounts of plants, you could
use a 100-watt sodium lamp instead of a shop-light. For about the same
amount of electricity, you'd be getting more light because of the higher
efficiency, and because the HID lamps produce all of the light from a very
small area, a good reflector can focus the light into a much tighter area
than a shop-light, giving you MUCH higher intensities.

steve