Here are the rest of the photos.

Those are vicious looking thorns, regardless.

I probably would have left it to see how long it took the leaves to turn to green. What I would have done today was take off that bud (painful to take off a bud anytime) and I would check to see if all the sexual parts are there. Often with RRD the receptacle is missing. Sometimes the stamens and ovules aren't there. It's probably too young to look for anthers on this bud, but the receptacle should have formed already.

The bottom leaves being subsized don't bother me, they often are. I am bothered by the close grown (short internodal distances) but the leaves up by the bud.

I don't know what Take It Easy looks like when it blooms one bud per stem.
This is something that is a genetic thing. And it ties to some exhibitors. I've talked with international rose show judges who complain that members of the ARS like their blooms to be way above the foliage except for a couple of smaller compound leaves; in Australia, for example, foliage goes up and all but caresses the bloom (and cultivars are chosen that look like this.) What I'm getting to is that TIE could be a rose where the foliage goes all the way up the stem. I'm seeing that on some of my more recent floribundas and am trying to get used to it.

As I wrote before, I probably would have left it and it would have bothered me. I'd be going on Google photos to try to find just the right photo to tell me what normal is for this cultivar.

Good luck.

Ann

Thank you so very much for looking. Yes it's true by removing it I'll most likely not know for a while to come if it was rrv or not. I certainly had not had the rose long enough for an idea of typical growth or coloring on a robust cane. Could not stand to leave on.

Ann, you mentioned that you would have waited to "see how long it took the leaves to turn to green." How long is a reasonable time to wait? I'm eyeing a rose that is putting out a couple red-leafed side "branches" off the main cane. You know, "does that look normal or is there something wrong with those branches" kind of dilemma. It has just been a few days now that I noticed that growth and I was telling myself to wait and see--but I really have no idea how long it takes a new red cane/leaves to turn green.

Thanks.

Kate

The worst "doesn't change color" scenario was up at the Lincoln Memorial Rose Garden (now bulldozed). One floribunda never turned green, it stayed magenta...even the canes..although the rose petals turned pink.

In midsummer, I wait for rain or watering + five or six days with some sun. I also put a lot of faith in what the leaf margins look like, because those get set (the pattern of the edge) gets set early and when they flatten out, it's easier to check.

My panic two weeks ago when I saw some really bad growth out on a cane and at two nodes down the canes on the same side (other side of the cane wasn't affected)...that cane got pulled off immediately...anyway that bush had four basal breaks. Fortunately I had another of that cultivar and it had four new basal breaks as well. But the color of those basals (in the shade of the leaves ) was a distressing bronzy color. It took a week for them to green up in their shaded location. But, for now, both bushes are growing about the same. And nothing bad is coming out from where I took off the cane.
We've had a lot of rain with thunder and lightening...and that's spurring growth. I keep checking the base of the rose with the immediate cane removal.