Another pic ..
You can see that it's only the 3 plants in the middle .. the others around are fine.

This post was edited by Spotteddog101 on Wed, Dec 17, 14 at 7:16

Welcome Paula,

How wonderful it is to see a post from a member of the canna family from South Africa. Although cannas were not native to the African continent they have proven to thrive in your region since their introduction many years ago. In fact, in the recent past, there were a few South African nurseries exporting cannas to the European and North American consumers. Often plant specialists made trips to your area seeking canna cultivars that were unknown or had been lost to the Northern Hemisphere. This was especially true around the Pretoria and Johannesburg area.

Some thoughts concerning your cannas:

First I am reasonably sure you are not dealing with a virus issue.

I suspect that all you are seeing is a very normal maturation of the oldest stalk (cane) of a healthy plant. It appears to me that the healthy new canes are arising from the mother plantâÂÂs first growth (which has finished blooming and is simply dying).

Cannas typically produce their primary canes (shoots), and as this first growth matures and blooms, the underground rhizome has begun to produce new canes to grow and bloom after the primary shoot/shoots mature. By mid to late season the primary canes have completed their life cycle. The new growth then continues the blooming life cycle all over again while the original stalks wither away.
If this is a correct assumption on my part, you may choose to simply cut away the old mature canes and eliminate the old mature stalk. Cut it off a few inches above ground level.

Please understand that there is always the possibility of a plant that dies prematurely which I cannot see in your photos but would typically indicate a bacterial root infection. Thanks for your post.

Regards,

Kent

Thank you so much Kent, and apologies for the very late response. I live the Pretoria/Johannesburg area, and there are cannas everywhere! They are all flowering now, and the variety of colours is amazing.
Your diagnoses was spot on, those stalks continued to die and everything else remained healthy. Sure enough, there were new shoots coming up from the ground, so we cut the 2 dying stalks off and the new ones are growing beautifully.
Thanks again for your wonderful help ïÂÂ
Paula