If the rhizomes were healthy & plump when you got them, the fertilizer may have burned them.

You might ask your county's Agricultural Extension Agent, or a Master Gardener, or a local organic garden club, what to do to make cannas happy in your area.

By all means, though, do try again.

Cannas give you a lot of enjoyment for very little expense & very little effort.

I'm curious as to when you purchased and planted your Trops. If it was late in the growing season then they may have just gone dormant. If you didn't dig them up, maybe they'll surprise you and come back up this Spring.

Like Silva said, it's very possible that you may have damaged/killed them by over fertilizing. Cannas can take alot of fertilizer, however, when something comes from a grower to a distributor, they usually are well fertilized by the time you get them. This helps them to look their best so that people will purchase them. Personally I rarely fertilize my cannas. I do toss a handful of granular fertilizer around the bases of my cannas and water it in during the Spring. Other than tossing compost over the soil, that's all that I do.

Another thought that I had was perhaps they needed to be acclimated to your growing conditions before planting them out. It's possible that the ones that you purchased were green house grown.

It's really hard to help determine what happened but I have to agree that you definitely need to try again. I've been growing cannas for years and they're among some of my favorites.

Jenna

I bought them in September at Home Depot on sale. I hope they just went dormant. I am going to try again; they are one of the few tall flowers that I know can stand the heat in my area. Thanks for the info on the fertilizer I will be careful of that this year. I will keep you posted.

Nosy me would dig them up to see what state the rhizome is in. They may need to be cleaned up a bit (remove soft, rotten parts, remove dead leaves). I'd also take that opportunity to loosen up the soil some and add more organic materials before replanting. I tend to help them out more the first year with plenty of water in particular, but once they're established, they grow/return nicely -- even in central AZ where I'm at.

Also, if the cannas came from a different climate originally, they might go into shock for a bit, recuperate, then come back. I have one pot of cannas that were AZ grown that are "on schedule" -- and some rhizomes that I purchased from Maryland that have just now stuck sprouts up after being in the ground for about a month. I do prefer to grow them from rhizomes, though.