I am a little confused on budding. Does the Bud(scion wood) have to be dormant to be successfully grafted or can you take a bud now and graft? Thanks!

The ‘budding wood’ or ‘bud stick’ will be fresh. You use the newly formed buds at the base of the leaves on a shoot having developed this year, like a water shoot from the top of the tree. Nothing dormant about it, everything’s alive and growing