A nursery man once told me that Ceanothus can die when newly planted, even from a pot and I had it happen to my newly bought Treewithin, fifteen years ago. Fortunately, I took cuttings that did take when planted and matured without trouble thereafter.
I'm not sure this is any solution to your problem and I'm not suggesting that your plants will die as mine did, but its not uncommon.
Perhaps the clay soil is waterlogged? Perhaps the high winds are stressing the plant? I'm not sure what I would do except wait and see, I've famously decided plants were dead before now only to have them spring to life in the new season.