I was excited to see this post. Anytime I see plants mentioned I get excited. I love gardening and plants and so love to see others so excited.

I love succulents and sempervivens can be easy to care for, but you are right they do like a lot of sun. I grow a lot of succulents mainly becuase I have an area that is hot and sunny in the Summer and when other things can't handle the winds they do fine.

With your basil cuttings, the longer woody peice might not take as easily. Usually when you take cuttings for water you use fresh green growth and try to take off all but a few leaves so that the plant can take the energy to make roots and not have to keep so many leaves alive. You might be able to even cut sections of the woody bit where you see the leaf nodes and put them in rooting hormone ( a powder you can buy) and stick them in a pot of potting soil and get them started that way, propagating that way is fun!

Have fun and more plant videos!