Hi Colcol,
Don 't worry about it! We were all newbies at one time : )

#1, yes. If you've got neighbors close, you could get cross pollination from them too.

#2 for flowers, I really don't know of a good book. For veggies, Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth is the book to get.

Don't feel bad for posting here! I'm glad to help.
Remy

Remy is our #1 answer woman here I think. She is great......so knowledgeable and willing to always help.

I did a search and found many threads that would answer my questions, BUT, the threads won't open for me.
Yes, the search has been out for a while here...guess it needs reported again and I'll do that once they get the Contact Us link working...sigh.

It is possible though to get the search results to come up.

Say you search Cross Pollination - Flowers

and want to check out the 3rd post...Question about cross-pollination
When you click on it you will get the WHOOPSmessage.
The URL for the page will be
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/seedsave/msg1015554926300.html

Go to the URL and delete out the digit 2 (two) directly behind http://forums

The URL will then be
http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/seedsave/msg1015554926300.html

Hit enter and it will take you to the post.

hth

Sue