Crossword Genius

Piano rock repulsed pretty delicate little things (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

petals

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'delicate little things' is the definition.
(petals are delicate)

'piano rock repulsed' is the wordplay.
'piano' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation).
'rock' becomes 'slate' (slate is a type of stone).
'repulsed' shows that the letters should be reversed in order.
'slate' backwards is 'etals'.
'p'+'etals'='PETALS'

'pretty' is the link.
This may not be right. It may belong to another bit of the clue.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for petals that I've seen before include "Palest parts of flowers" , "Outer parts of flowers" , "Plates (anag.)" , "Parts of flowers in pastel" , "Flower parts on plates" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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