This plant blights off so readily in my area you start to see some doing it before they even get out of the sales yards. Growers must have a special spray program or other routine to keep this alive at the production facilities. Maybe they're all coming from California and they don't have this problem down there, for some reason.

Your shrubs are throwing up flags of surrender to the site conditions and will probably die out. Best to try another selection.

What does "spraying the bed" actually mean? Wetting the surface 3 times per week won't do anything for your plantings. What they need is a good, deep soak, making sure that the original rootball is thoroughly wet too. Sometimes the rootball dries out while the surrounding soil is moist.

Put a soaker hose around the new plants and let it run on a slow soak whenever the soil is dry. Or put a five gallon bucket with a small hole in the bottom next to each plant and fill the bucket with water. Putting the water on too quickly can cause it to just run off without getting down to the roots of the shrubs. Don't fertilize the new plantings. They may survive with some die-back around the edges, or they may not.

This is a tough time to plant, early spring or fall is kinder to new plantings, with cooler weather.