Leaf-tyer caterpillars feed on the foliage. That's why they build shelters among the leaves. They are inside during the day, very easy to find and squish them. Trust me, aphids are not a serious problem. Everyone has them in spring, but they don't do significant damage. Just wipe off the heavily-infested growth tips with your fingers or knock them off with a spray of water if you are watering. Or you can spray the new growth with insecticidal soap. I presume you are using the All-in-One soil drench product. Most people here recommend against it because you are applying much more chemicals to the garden than needed, the Merit component can cause spider-mite outbreaks, the insecticide doesn't work consistently, and the product is very expensive. The Bayer Disease Control containing only tebuconazole, applied with a tank sprayer, is very effective for blackspot. Most growers don't apply insecticides routinely

In previous posts there has been very detailed discussion about leaf rollers and how to control them so yesterday when I discovered some of my canna had stitched leaves I put a stop to it right there. I cut off the rolled leaves to ground level then sprayed the heck out of everything with orthenex, tops bottoms and inbetweens. I then sprayed the cut leaves making sure the spray got into the rolled tube then folded them over into little small packages and stomped on them and threw them in the garbage veteran canna growers have gotten me paranoid about those suckers. I wanted to make sure they were dead. For the next few days I will be keeping an eagle eye out for stitched leaves. X

Mary Jane, Thank you for signing your note. Contact insecticides typically must be able to come into physical contact with the pest to be effective. Many of our typical household sprays such as ÂRaid Flying Insect Killer or ÂHot Shot Roach & Ant Killer are typical contact insecticides. You will find the same type of insecticides available for our plants and gardens. Many of our outdoor contact insecticides rapidly become diluted or their effectiveness is inhibited by our inability to apply the product in a manner that makes pest contact. Contact insecticides can be very useful for pests that are living on the surface of the host, but have little value for pests feeding or living inside the host. If you cannot see the pest, you generally need to consider using a pesticide that the host can absorb and disperse internally to its growing parts. The pest will then contact and consume the pesticide. This type of insecticide is generally referred to as a "systemic insecticide". You spray a systemic insecticide on the plant, the plant absorbs and disperses the product internally and the pest can now be connected to the product when it feeds on the plant. Because night flying moths are responsible for laying eggs and tightly rolling and sealing the canna leaf, typical contact insecticides or bio agent are unable to make contact with the internal pestÂs larva. Systemic insecticides are our most effective means of reaching this pest. Storing your cannas in their growing containers is not a problem. Simply remove and trash the plant foliage and prevent freezing of the rhizomes in the containers. Once new growth begins in the spring, I would begin a spray program with Orthene (acephate). You cannot totally prevent the moths from rolling the leaf and laying the eggs. You may need to carefully unstitch some of leaves to maintain good appearance but the larva will not survive and the leaf should then unfurl and remain healthy as long as your spray program is adequate. By the way, do not use Orthene on your plants near fish ponds and follow label recommendations. Regards, Kent

BT definitely won't cause this. If it is root rot, which I think it is, it might be a good idea to re-"leave" the plant from a few of it's leaves. I've heard of some chemical treatments that are targeted towards phytophthora mold (which is usually what causes root rot) but I've never tried them myself. The best way us home gardeners deal with it is to let the soil dry out a little. The roots that are already rotted are now useless so the plant might have too many leaves to keep itself alive at the moment. I'd prune it back a good amount and only water it again once the top 3ish inches of soil is dry. Obviously there are some roots still alive or the plant would be completely dead by now. If it's a plant you really don't want to lose and don't mind doing a lot of work on it, I'd recommend pruning it back enough that digging it up isn't a huge pain. Then dig it up, and cut off any roots with rot on them at the point they are rotting. then cut off a few more branches (depends on how many roots are left) then pot it up while it recovers. I'd also amend that soil area where it sits while it recovers so there's more drainage.