Welcome, Trace and hope we can help you. Pictures of the plants would help us a lot. Location, sun or shade, slope, adjacent trees, or buildings? Closeups are helpful as well.
Just a word here about so-called "drought tolerant" plants. That term doesn't mean you can just plant them and walk away. You still have to help them establish themselves, develop good root systems and acclimate before tapering off the water and fertilizer. A full grown bougainvillea that's been in one place for years is absolutely care free, in general, except you'd need to prune it to keep it from taking over. But young plants take quite a while to establish themselves. Bougies have very fine roots and often don't transplant well.
