maybe the need to be watered more? the leaves look dry. I ould remove the brown leaves or portions of leaves. what kind of soil are they in? you might want to compost around them, it usually holds the moisture better and has lots of fertilizer.

Google "Canna virus". Or possibly a pest, like red spider mite?

Do spider mites like cannas? How much water do they need? Should I water them pretty regularly?

When I relocated mine recently, the largest one got a little too dried out (silly me dug them up, *then* prepared the new hole... lol) and one of it's leaves looked like that. It ended up with almost a papery texture. I'm no expert, by any means, in fact a newbie, but based on my recent experience, I'd say they are getting dried out. Cannas are tropical plants and love water.

All my cannas are in big pots with a good compost soil with wood chips on top - I fill them with water every day - cannas love water - I think they(yours)are just dried out - it sounds like you dont water on a regular basis - Cannas are often sold at water garden nurseries because they love water so much - Honestly I dont' think you could drown a canna.....lol . Remove the dead leaves and water the Sh*t out of it.

cheers

I agree that baby looks like it needs water. I grow most of mine in pots with no drainage. The ones in the ground are in good compost that tends to stay moist. I grew canna pink sunburst in the pond. It was very happy.

Canna are similar to Banana. I don't hear people say that Canna are very hungry plants, but they do say that about Banana Plants.

The reason I bring it up is that it is known that the rhizomes of Canna are very rich in starch. Surely, a rhizome is the healthy center of a Canna and certainly, it must feed to develope that rhizome and to do what Canna do well ... spread.

You say you recently moved the Canna and bingo, they are doing poorly. Maybe you moved them into poor soil and you need to do something to enrich that soil. Mulch and N rich plant food are likely good to start.

You may have a virus or a pest, but if the plant is getting the nutrients it needs, it is better prepared to deal with those problems. It may also be that something got dumped in the place you replanted and the Canna can't deal with it. Even so, re-mulching should eliminate anything like that, where say, somebody dumped a mop bucket full of detergent or bleach or something. Canna grow close to the surface mostly.

And Canna are generally very hardy and seem so prolific as to have the character of weeds, except that they are attractive. As beautiful as Heliconia, another Banana relative, are, some folks down in Panama deride them as they spread rapidly and brown out in huge swaths under direct equatorial sunlight. I've not known Canna to care about direct sunlight, but may waver under very high temps as may be created in rocky areas where light and heat are convected and re-radiated to raise temps higher than in places where the heat is reflected or breezed away.

This is canna mosaic virus. This is nothing you did wrong, but was caused from the virus. Get rid of those cannas ASAP. Don't compost them, get them off your property. Don't buy any more cannas. The vast majority of cannas for sale these days are diseased. See if you can find a friend who has healthy cannas growing and ask them for a start. Probably anyone who grows cannas would be happy to give you some, whether you know them or not. I wouldn't plant any new cannas in the same spot as these diseased cannas, at least for a year or two. Good luck to you and don't blame yourself for the shape your cannas are in. Nothing you can do will make those cannas healthy. They are extremely diseased! I've been growing cannas for 20 years and have lost over half my collection, more than 30 varieties, due to this disease. It is very widespread and is infecting cannas all over the world, not just in the US. Google "canna mosaic virus" to learn more about this problem.

Hold on just a minute here ...

Below is a link that has very clear photos of the Virus and if you look, you can see 'patterns' or 'streaks' running parallel to the leaf veins. These beady pale streaks identify the virus clearly. Virus are very structured and form colonies that show clearly defined geometric patterns, not random splotching. The word Mossaic is descriptive, not of random splotching, but the geometric visible characteristics of the virus at work.

Your photos show browning and random mottling or spotting and the beady parallel streaks of virus affected tissue are not apparent in the leaves of your Canna. Only one of your photos shows anything like 'streaking' and that appears more like the normal veining of the plant leaf itself, not the beady, parallel to the veins patterning of the virus. Of course your photos may not clearly show this and if you have seen the parallel to the veins distortions in leaf texture, then feel confidence that you have the virus in your Canna.

The article in the link below describes a very dreary outlook for Canna, but CannaMossaicViraPhobia is probably just as bad as the Virus. Take a look at the photos in this link and compare.

Of course, if you feel that your Canna are doomed, perhaps even for something like grey mold, weed them out. But I don't think you need to go CannaMossaicViraPhobic.

Here is a link that might be useful: VIRUS PICTURES & DESCRIPTION

Wow! I had no idea cannas were having such trouble. That is terrible. I was going to buy more cannas for next year. Do none of you buy cannas now? Is there no safe source?
I hate to rip them up and get rid of them. Should I try to water more and see if that is the problem?

I would definitely try upping the water, they look parched to me, not diseased. As already said, it would pretty darned hard to drown a canna. I grow all of mine in pots and the pot sits in a deep saucer (2-3") that is kept full. Only 2 of my pots are not in saucers and they have no drainage. Other than one attacked by Japenese beetles they all look great.

If they were mine I would trim off the dead leaves and trim off the brown on the living leaves. Then water them at least once a day, twice if you can. Once you see healthy new leaves coming (and it could take a while, the rhizomes are stressed and conserving energy right now)I would start fertilizing with a water based fertilizer. Mulching the canna bed will help conserve the moisture, I top all my pots off with mulch.

ThreeOrangeBoys,

Again, let's not get CannaMossaicViraPhobic. Yes, it appears that huge Canna Nurseries and Farms have had problems and that they know that they distributed virused plants. But time has passed and they know about it and are responding.

The link in my last post to this thread is from one such grower and distributer of Canna ... Hart Canna. Read what they say about the problem and then, realize that they are still in business and still shipping. They have been responsibly taking steps to eliminate both the virus and the risk of spreading it through wholesale or retail distribution. I give them a 'Bravo Zulu' for that. That's 'well done' for those of you who've never heard the term before.

Just look your Canna over carefully when you buy. The signs of viral infection are obvious, except in a few species where the pattern may be masked by the natural pattern of the leaves.

The damage caused by spider mites would be much more subtle.

They do look parched to me.

Cut off the brown and water, water, water.

WOW - I can't believe this has happened to my cannas and the new leaves come out with the brown spots. BUT I sprayed them with a fungicide and the new leaves started coming out looking better. Should I still dispose of them? They are really diseased. They are in a pot on my driveway actually and not near any other plants except an azalea. And the pot is probably a foot from the azalea.

Tear down the plant cane or stalk to the ground and let it put up new growth after using more of that fungicide.