Transplanting Bay Laurel Cuttings

While visiting my in-laws this past weekend, I noticed that my wife's aunt and uncle have a nice potted Bay Laurel tree in their dining room standing approximately 4' tall and 2' wide in a 5 gallon pot.  Although I understand it had recently been on death's doorstep from someone over-watering it, it appeared to be bouncing back nicely.

I complimented them on the tree and they asked if I wanted some cuttings.  Given we had a baby Bay Laurel that died this past year, I eagerly accepted.

Yesterday afternoon, I retrieved the two cuttings from the wet paper towels they had been wrapped in.  I wet both stems then dipped them in rooting compound per the instruction.  After tapping off the excess, I put them both in a pot of potting soil and watered the soil a bit.  Because I think our water softener is killing the plants, I obtained the water from one of the dehumidifiers in the basement.

Hopefully, the transplants take.  I would have felt a lot more comfortable if I'd had 3-4 cuttings, but at least 2 is better than none.

I did some reading this morning and saw that Bay Laurels can live outside to hardiness Zone 7 or 8 depending on where the information comes from.  If I have success in getting these cuttings to take root, I'd like to try getting other cuttings to grow and try growing the tree outdoors.  I'm not going to try that with either of these, though.