The lowest cuttings you want to take would be from the bottom of the plant since that is where more of the plants rooting hormones are located. You do not need rooting hormone, I successfully did 2 out of 2 clones without it with great success, read the last page on my grow log, it pretty much covers everything you need to do, I left out the part about being careful not to break the new roots off, when they get long enough then you can gently put them in moist soil.