Made it out to a craft store.  Picked up a rose, not glued.  

They all had 4 petals instead of 3 though per layer.

Tried closing them by pulling through an aperture.  Same issue as the 4 petal nylon version I made.  They took like 15lbs of force to close.

Remodeled the original nylon rose petals to have 3 elements, increased the hub size, and added hinges.

Much better.  A lot lower force to fold them.  I was even able to heat form one of the petals.

So.. gonna try nylon again, this time with three petals per layer.

Printing more.