How mushy were they? Did your ground freeze this past Winter? Canna rhizomes don't like to be frozen and it will usually kill 'em. Did you heavily mulch the areas where the cannas were before the cold weather temps hit last fall?

Something tells me that they might be goners, but the only way you can really tell is if they do or don't start to come back up with the onset of warm weather and when the soil starts to warm up. DON'T overwater them in the areas that you transplanted them into. In fact, let Mom Nature do your watering for you, at least for now. If there's a chance that they'll survive, you don't want to have them rotting on you. The soil is still moist and cold, even tho the soil surface may look dry.

Jenna

In your zone you should definitely dig those puppies up for the winter.

Sorry to say it but you were given some very bad advice. Cannas MIGHT survive in the ground in zone 6 if they are planted against a foundation and/or heavily mulched and/or you have an unusually mild winter.

I have some coming up from last year. (not an experiment, just got lazy last fall) I didn't mulch and just pulled the tops off earlier this spring. The were planted a foot or less from the foundation on the south side. ?

dug them uplast week and set them in the sun to dry a bit-pretty mushy. I'm going to put them back in the ground for compost or maybe I'll get a surprise.