Serissa foetida root ball

I’m new to bonsai care, so please be gentle if I’m missing something obvious.

I just got a snow rose that came in a small, temporary nursery pot. It looked healthy and was blooming when I got it. I wanted to repot it for multiple reasons (one being that I can’t trust my cats to not knock something that top heavy over). But I discovered that the root ball was almost a solid mass of mature roots twisted around each other. I untangled some of it, but couldn’t get them all loose for fear of injuring the roots.

You can see from the pictures that the tree looks significantly less vibrant after thus treatment. I repotted with new bonsai soil and tamped down the dirt and watered it only. I know Serissa are temperamental about watering.

Does anyone have input on how to handle this? Should I be concerned that I couldn’t get all of the root mass untangled? I don’t want to torture the tree all over again without some recovery. I wish I had taken pictures of the roots when I had them exposed.

Thanks!

Have you trimmed the roots? Usually it is advised to trim them if you repot.
Have you got rid of the old soil completely? Some soil should be left for this species.
Serissas are *very* fussy, and they can sulk for a year after rough handling or doing things at the wrong time.
Nothing to do with you or your tree, but...
I hate Serissas.

Unfortunately, my cats gave me a chance to get those pictures of the root ball. They knocked down the curtains and the curtain rod uprooted both my trees (the other is a Fukien tea tree, which doesn’t seem phased at all).

And yes. I did trim the roots.

Thanks for the reply! I can understand hating a fussy plant. I just find it so beautiful that it’s a worthwhile challenge.