I have had some success with whip&tongue grafting cherries. But it required me to either graft
incredibly early (before February 15th), or after the stock had begun to leaf out. In the second
case, I bagged the graft to keep it from drying out.
I haven't had success in budding cherries, but my overall budding success is low.
The bad news is that 2/3 of my cherry trees are on GM 51 (and the 3rd dwarfing rootstock is unknown). To paraphrase Jim Cummins when I heard speak at a Nafex conference:
"Beautifully dwarfed tree, but no fruit"
Some of the scion wood were from not particularly productive trees so I may have compounded my problems. I'm considering starting to grow the sweeter tart cherries and give up on the sweets.
*SIGH*
Chris Mauchline SE PA, zone 6 40° 5' N 75° 51'W ~650 ft elevation