I agree with your agreement. I love the rose passage, myself.

I do wonder if Doyle was trying to slightly redraft Holmes, or show him as growing from the narrow intellect his readers first met. As scfrankles points out very well, Holmes still has a way to go.

Considering how Holmes later shows a great knowledge of literature etc (music could have always been thought an essential), as opposed to his original stance; perhaps we could see Watson as teaching Holmes? He never vaunts his own knowledge, as opposed to Holmes', but he obviously has a taste for more than one literature.