Actually, Bruce is wrong on two counts:
1) Podocarpus species ARE conifers.
2) Catkins are not buds. They are the flowers of trees in the birch, beech, willow, and other families.
I can't really tell you anything about the pruning of Podocarpus, but they are fairly popular penjing subjects in China. According to Robert J. Baran, they are the specialty of the Nantong school of penjing. I found the following links that might be of some help:
http://www.bonsai4me.com/SpeciesGuide/Podocarpus.html
http://www.bonsai-bci.com/species/podocarpus.html
Rainer