In my experience, gardening books that I have seen so far, when
describing propagation of heathers, talk about layering shoots into
the ground from a plant in situ, or alternatively taking cuttings and
putting directly into a peat based compost. Has anyone had any success
in trying to get heather cuttings (Erica, Calluna etc) obtained
freshly from the plants, initially to produce roots in jam jars of
water indoors (rather like the usually easy method for getting fuchsia
cuttings to produce roots) and then been able to transfer them for
growing on further, into pots of compost for (in the case of most
heathers) acid loving plants.

Geoff