Hi Deanna,
The white fluff is usually a sign of being ready or almost ready. Many plants and stems of flowers do not turn brown when seed is ripe. Most often only where the flower was turns brown. I usually inspect the base of the flowers looking for browning. In a few instances though, it stays green. I'm not sure if the base of the flower turns brown or not with New England Aster.
If you are unsure if the seeds are ripe and worried about the seed flying away when they are, there's an easy solution. Bag the flowers. Little organza gift bags work great. Then when you see the fluff loose from the flower, you can harvest then.
Good seed should look like the pic on the site below. The pic to the left is clickable to enlarge.
Hope that helps,
Remy |
Here is a link that might be useful: New England Aster Page
