Help With Poorly Shrubs I have three shrubs in my garden which are causing me concern

There is nothing wrong with your azalea that is lichen growing on the branch which indicated you live in a clean air area.

What is the soil like that you have planted the cornus and magnolia in? Is water able to get through what looks like a lot of gravel to the shrubs? Did you plant the shrubs in the soil at the depth they were in the pot and then add the gravel, if so the shrubs wont be happy. Personally I'd take them both out of your gravel bed and plant where they can be mulched with something like composted bark.

the bottom picture, which I assume must be the magnolia, looks as if there's a scale infestation on the stems - I can see what looks like slightly lumpy areas with white fluff on them on the stem in the foreground, growing to the right. Not close enough to be sure though.
The tip picture (azalea) shows a dead stem which has been populated with lichen - cut off the dead stem.
As for the middle one, (cornus?) as you only planted it 2 months ago, have you had much rain there? Might be a water problem, that is, not enough is getting to the rootball. Alternatively, have you had any frost recently? What have temperatures been like since you planted it?

Thank you for the replies. Yes, I think the suggestion that the azalea branch has lichen is correct, I'll cut it off.

I think I may have planted the dogwood and magnolia too deep, I covered them with soil up to the original depth, and then covered them with gravel. A friend suggested that maybe there is lime in the gravel which is affecting them, could that be true?

Yes we had a frost last week, but these shrubs were looking sad before that. If I do move them elsewhere, does anyone have any suggestions for what I could replace them with in the gravel bed?

And what about the scale on the magnolia?

Well the Magnolia would prefer not to be around lime the problem is if you've buried them deeper than they were by using the gravel, just how deep is it?

Thank you to everyone for the help.
The magnolia and cornus are planted in the soil up to their original planting in the pot when I bought them, then there is a couple of inches of gravel above.

Then you need to remove the gravel... or dig up the shrubs and re-plant so the gravel is at the same level they were in the soil. Also the azalea nor the magnolia prefer part shade.