Need some advice on repotting a legacy azalea

[Bonsai_Bentley]

I bought an azalea last year from a shop that closed. It's planted in what appears to be top soil and sand. I'd like to replace it with kanuma, but I recently learned that if you're going to change the soil type that you should basically bare root it. Is this true? If so, I've probably missed the window.

 

[0soyoung]

Be careful about 'bare root' because that matted mess are the roots. The thick things are just plumbing. You can cut out wedges of them between the big pipes. You can prune downward going stuff to make a shallower pad, of course.

Not to worry. You can do this right after flowering or a bit later, specifically sometime in the summer (after the summer solstice, in Jul/Aug/Sep).