Comarostaphylis and Xylococcus

Hi,
Does anyone have any experience with these two plants
in southern California? 
Unlike the manzanitas, these are actually native in
the southern chaparral, so I'd like to use them in dry
or semi-dry gardens, but so far I've had very little
success. 
I've tried Comarostaphylis in both a hand-watered
completely California native garden, and also in a
moderately-watered mediterranean garden sharing space
with an olive, rosemary, and lavender.  Both were
planted in clay soil, but on a berm, so drainage
should be adequate.  The native garden plant went in
as a one-gallon in late fall, and conked out by early
summer.  The mediterranean garden plant went in at the
same time, made fast growth in the spring, the lead
shoot broke in half, and the whole plant died in
mid-summer.
I have one Xylococcus in the native plant garden.  It
went in as a one-gallon plant at the same time as the
Comarostaphylis, about 10 feet away.  It's still alive
entering it's second February, and has flowered, but
looks a bit stressed: old leaves have dropped, and the
plant has grown very little.  It shares the berm with
several Ceanothus, Arcto. 'Howard McMinn', Arcto.
pungens, Mahonia nevinnii, Mahonia fremontii, Salvia
'Winnifred Gilman', and Prunus illicifolia.  The
Prunus looks less than happy, and the 'Howard McMinn'
looks like it would prefer a bit more water, but
everything else is doing fine.  I water very rarely
now as the garden is two years old, but I'd say I give
it a good drink once a month in the hot inland valley
of Simi Valley.
Any advice?
-Ben Wiswall
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