Remove Juniper top growth or not after collection

I've been reading information on Junipers in which there is seems to be a belief that junipers will draw in more moisture from their foliage than they will from their roots (hence, very few fine roots to collect). Does anyone have any opinions on this? I am collecting more junipers soon and would like to know if removing almost all of the top growth because of a lack of fine feeder roots (as I would with every other collection) would be detrimental to the survival of the juniper trees. Thanks!!

I am in Florida so, we don't doing anything with Junipers this late and we try not to work on roots and top at the same time.