No you cannot take some clippings and set them aside. you MUST immediately place them into the medium in which you plan to propagate and start trying to get them rooting. Once they have rooted and are growing then you have a clone of the mother plant, that plant can be kept in a vegetative state forever as long as you give it food, water, air and at least 16 hours of light per day. You make the plant produce bud when you shorten the light cycle to 12 hours lights on and 12 hours lights off.