SSL Secured?

I am building an online eCommerce store with a shopping cart...
I got as hosting plan, and I have a couple of pages that are SSL secured for the shopping cart.

What does it mean that the pages are SSL secured?
Can I just make a regular form with a credit card text input and just send the data to my email from there without worrying about security if it is SSL secured?

Thanks

(...continuation)

should I at least encrypt the hidden tags or something like that???

Hello gilly914! :)

I searched using google... and here's what I found:
http://www.worldstart.com/tips/tips.php/1061
http://www.webhostingasap.com/faq/ssl.html

Hope those answered your questions.