Many roses with fully double flowers will produce some with fewer petals, often varying with temperature, and especially when young or newly-planted. It certainly doesn't resemble any rootstock with which I'm familiar. My opinion is that this flower is simply within the variations possible for the rose you purchased. If you look through the photos of 'Brother Cadfael' on HelpMeFind, you'll find a couple with fewer petals in the center than other blooms.

:-)

~Christopher

Here is a link that might be useful: 'Brother Cadfael' on HelpMeFind

Thanks Christopher. I love roses, but still have limited experience growing them. I was steeling myself to rip the cane out and I'm relieved to have a second opinion.

Yes, that is Brother Cadfael. As you grow in experience growing roses, you will see that depending on the age of the bush, the weather, the soil, water, food, etc., they can and will surprise you. The older the rose (that is, the type of rose, not the specific bush) the more variable they can be, in my experience.

I have old tea roses which can vary in color, size of bloom, shape of bloom (!), etc., all depending on the season & weather. I love that they do that. Here is a picture of my rose which varies the most in color - it is the old tea rose 'Anna Olivier'. Normally its blooms are buff with a sort of brick color splotch on the reverse of the petals, but as you can see from this picture, the blooms can also be pale yellow or pale pink. The buds are normally a pale pink, but the ones in this picture are much darker.

If you look at any rose on HMF which has lots of pictures, you will usually see this sort of variability, even in some modern roses. Since the Austin roses were bred with some old types originally, perhaps it is not surprising to see some variability.

Jackie