To the plant, pollination is pollination. To the gardener who wants particular results (such as wanting to keep an heirloom variety pure), cross-pollination (cross-breeding) is something to avoid. To a grower or scientist who is trying to create a new variety, cross-pollination is desirable. It's all on your point of view. Like Dave said, some varieties are very genetically stable, like his Nantes carrots. Others, like curcubits, are notorious for cross-pollinating. If you're growing certain kinds of decorative gourds, and zucchini or other squashes, insects will cross-pollinate them very easily, and if you saved the seeds from your wonderful zucchini and planted them, they could end up being something almost unrecognizable and tasteless. "Does cross pollination always create a hybrid?" Yes and no. Technically, every pollinated plant is producing a hybrid, because every plant from every seed has a tiny, microscopic difference from the plant next to it, although it is, for most purposes, the same. Only cuttings, cloned or tissue-cultured plants are exactly the same as the parent stock. Plants labeled 'hybrids' have been crossed from plants with noticeably different qualities. If you crossed two of these 'hybrids', they would most likely revert back to the qualities of one or the other of the 'parents'. Granny Smith apples came from crabapples. If you planted a Granny Smith seed and nutured it for several years, you would probably end up with some sort of crabapple or similar variation. Two additional bits of info (just to confuse you a little more ;-) ): 1) You can be growing two similar plants near each other, but if they flower at different times, they won't (can't) cross-pollinate. Corn is a good example: there are early, mid-season and late varieties of corn. Corn cross-pollinates easily because it's wind-borne, but if they tassle (the 'flower') at different times and there is no other corn around (esp upwind), they won't cross. If Alfie's apples (above) needed a pollinator variety, and he accidentally planted a variety that bloomed a month after his Macintosh, he wouldn't get any apples. 2) OP varieties can be 'manipulated' even within the variety. You can have a packet of seed of a single variety of an OP plant, and each seed inside will have a tiny difference about it. Many people will grow a particular variety that they like, and they will watch for 'special' ones among that variety: a tiny bit earlier, a slightly larger fruit, a sweeter flavor, a slightly higher yield, etc, and they will mark it and let a few fruits of that plant mature and collect the seed. The next year, they plant that seed, and again look for 'special' plants. Every year, they keep doing this, and end up (hopefully) with localized variety within a named variety that is especially suited to their local conditions. It's still the same variety, it's still OP, it's just an improved variation within that variety. If you bought seeds from a grower in BC, and you bought the same variety from a grower in ON, the local seeds might produce plants that had a slight edge on local conditions, concerning earliness, adaptibility to hot summers, or ability to grow with a bit less water. The seeds from BC might adapt better to cooler summers, more humidity, and a longer season.

Garlic chives are very late bloomers, typically well past the season ornamental alliums bloom, so chances of any cross pollination are minimal. And the effects of any cross pollination would only be present with any seeded offspring, not with the original plantings. btw, I have grown regular chives in close proximity to a number of ornamental alliums and have never had any crossed seedlings.

Although it may be scientifically possible for Native eastern red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) cross pollinate with Columbine Blue Barlow (Aquilegia vulgaris) -- it may be as gardengal48 says- just not attractive to pollinators with all those petals. I know I've read hummingbirds are attracted to Native eastern red columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) but never read of their attraction to Columbine Blue Barlow (Aquilegia vulgaris). I feel fairly confident that if they did not cross polinate in Ken's garden for 23 years, or in Markay's garden-, then they may not cross in my garden either. Thanks for everyone's input!

Your rose is probably a grafted rose which means that there is a commonly used root part (the rootstock) that the rose producers use for different varieties to give them perhaps hardiness, vigor, etc. The rose that you want is grafted onto the rootstock. So what probably happened is that the variety you want has died and the rootstock has taken over the growing part. Rootstocks are usually white (multiflora), red (Dr. Huey) and other colors. If you want the variety you bought, you'll have to buy it again.