They kind of just do this...they are very low water plants and if given too much water (and planted in too rich soil) it exacerbates the problem. I gave up on them a long time ago because I could never make them look nice past about the first year, similar to your experience.

Sara

I was at a nursery today and asked someone about them. They told me to prune them hard but honestly, I thought they were pretty small after I pruned them in late winter. I have been giving them a relatively lot of water as I was told to do this the first couple years. Maybe I'll try less. I might also try metal supports (you can use for floppy plants) next year before they start to grow. If that doesn't work, I'll probably give up too! It's a shame - they are so lovely before they spread.

The watering has likely hastened their 'disheveledness'. Hard pruning doesn't work very well with Mediterraneans but you can try - often they will not bud from bare wood (lavender similar for example).

Good luck!

Sara

I have found hard pruning to work much better with Santolina than, for example, Lavender. If you're nervous about cutting hard do a few branches as a test first. Also clip them all over immediately after flowering, or even before if you are not impressed by the flowers. And it certainly needs no supplementary water other than in its first few weeks of planting, not the first few years!