In China and Japan in the formal gardens there are many trees trained similarly to bonsai, sometimes with strange results, but they are trimmed and controlled using the same or similar techniques, but growing in the ground and usually 3-4 meters high. Is there a word for these?

One place in China there was a tree with a branch 10 meters or so long propped up three different places. I think it was at the Ming Tombs, but it was a long time ago.

You do not mean niwaki?

www.niwaki.com/

Clicio wrote: www.niwaki.com/

That took me to a garden supply site in the UK. I googled niwaki and got this site in australia:
blog.fantasticgardenersmelbourne.com.au/
They have directions for pruning, etc., that look pretty much like bonsai, except there isn't much mention of roots or anything else.

This will interest the Chinese daughter in law, whose husband just asked me this and I had no answer.

www.niwaki.com/jakehobson/

Yes they are five miles from me in Semley Wiltshire/Dorset depending on where the border is.