help with pinks

Hi everyone am new to this site and hoping you can help me. How do you keep pinks from getting scruffy and untidy looking?? I have been trying to grow them for a few years now and always run into the same problem. Do you chop them back severely when they finish flowering? I also find i have the same problem with lavender. Thanks for any advice.

 

I cut the flowering stalks off lavender after flowering is finished, and just give them a light haircut (i.e. to tidy them up) at the same time.

I haven't grown pinks for a while, but my recollection is that the stems elongate and thus become scruffy over time. Easiest might be to take cuttings and replace, say, 1/3rd of the plants each year.

I've seen the same advise recommended for Lavender "hedges" in order to keep the overall row of plants tidy.