AusBonsai

Got a paperbark I cut the roots in half and put it in another pot
Should I trim the top back to reduce stress on the roots or let it recover first?

Hmmm, perhaps you root pruned it a bit early but it should be fine with good after care.

It should be fine with good after care. Just keep an eye on it, so it get a chance to dry out in the new pot.

I would cut it back hard to reduce transpiration. I always pot mels into a very free draining mix and sit them in a saucer of water.

First question is what species??. there are around 50 paperbarks of the 250 plus Melaleucas. Some of the from swamps both freshwater and saline, others from granite outcrops and others from sand plains.

If you search in the main Australian Natives page you will find heaps of information on Melaleucas.

Cheers Pup.

Ps, just had another look at it, and it looks like a Melaleuca preissiana, it is a WA native, from low lying wet areas from Eneabba WA, to the Fitzgerald national park near Esperance.

It is also one of the touchiest Melaleucas to work with.

I dont know the species I dug it up from the farm, theres a heap of them growing in a peat swamp and this one died completly, everything turned yellow and everything 2 summers ago when it was especially hot then my boss watered it every day and it came back to life
Ill give it a good prune then to make sure its not under too much stress and give it plenty of water
it was growing in a pot of peat that it came from for the last 3 years and now its in potting mix so we'll see
fingers crossed and thanks for all the advice