Rescuing a dead Juniper?

[muniz21]

So I got what I think is (help me ID it please) just another normal chinese Juniper at a nursery yesterday. Guy told me it has looked this way for a couple months now. I got it really cheap but with the assurance it isn't dead.

I got it home in a ripped bag with exposed rooting, which is almost all dry. I put it in a pot full of water and let it absorb it for half an hour. During the day it got some morning sun, until the sky clouded up at around noon. That's basically all I've done to it. As you can see, it's been pretty malnourished. The bag is ripped and it's lacking soil. Some foliage looks bright green, some is yellowing, it definitely doesn't look pretty. I'd greatly appreciate any tips you could give me to bring it back to life, if it's not too late.

This is my first ''big'' bonsai, I have 5 other small thriving junipers, so I'm pretty excited to bring it back to life. I live in South Texas desert climate (9b hardiness), we get +100° heat everyday from may to november, but I've managed to keep my other junipers thriving with everyday watering and using shade cloth during noon, so I've pretty much figured out their needs after a few dead trees when starting out.

I'm posting a pic of another juniper I got from the same nursery last year for foliage color comparison.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

It has been in this soil for a while, so if you don't over water it, it will probably be fine until the next repotting season.

 

[Shibui]

The tree looks fine. There's plenty of healthy new buds and foliage colour looks normal for the most part.
There's a couple of shoots that don't look as vigorous but that can be due to lack of light on one side or some dry conditions at one stage. Interior yellowing and browning is normal behaviour for any juniper. Individual needles have a finite life span. When they get too old they turn brown and die, meanwhile new ones have grown further out. The challenge with bonsai is to keep some fresh green shoots closer to the trunk and inner branches. That's where pruning comes in.

The soil does look a bit old and compact. You don't have a location in your profile but assuming from the new shoots that you are somewhere in northern hemisphere and currently spring (just noted the ref to South Texas in the post) Given those new buds I think now would be an ideal time to repot into fresh soil mix that you can manage better than the current soil. I'd have no hesitation to get rid of all the old soil and replace it in one go but you may be more comfortable to do one side now and the other side next spring.

 

[bwaynef]

I think with the condition of the soil, the condition of the plant, and impending 100+F days, I'd repot this tree and try to baby it as necessary until its established. At the same time, I'd remove all the weak foliage.

 

[Hartinez]

Now is as good a time as any to repot. I prefer to do junipers later than everything else anyways. As others said, lots of weak foliage that is surely a sign of the soil compaction and quality. With that said though, it could also be just a characteristic of the cultivar. It looks like it could be Pfitzer or grey owl. Nice bluish foliage for landscapes but not the most ideal for bonsai purposes.