Hello my fellow tree nerds 
I have a feeling this is an outlier of a bonsai species
Does anyone have any experience with melaleuca species?
How are the roots when repotting? Hands off? No bare rooting? Etc.
Type of soil they prefer?
Will they back bud on old wood? Will they back bud at all?
Thanks everyone
Danielle
I know they use them in the Aussie bonsai scene. Maybe worth contacting one of their societies
Thanks! I wasn’t sure if there might be an Aussie or few here 
I went ahead and repot the nursery stock I found at a local spot. They only had 2 to pick from and I only had room for one. This one had the best trunk line of the 2.
From the repot I learned a few things:
It didn’t have a tap root but more shrub like roots with lots of fine ones
It was kept in sandy soil in the nursery can, but was way too wet (stinky!)
It’s pushing new growth now and even some new back buds. It hasn’t missed a beat from the repot and I kept a fairly small root mass because of rot.
I repotted it early this month (I’m in Orange County, CA) in a 1:1:1 mixture. The rock is wedged under the trunk, but not planning on a root over rock.
It looks good. You even have a sentry on duty against nasty bugs…
