We are all organic because that makes the best kind of produce and happiest flower.”

Antonio Dias

After 30 years of living just off Gooding Avenue, the Dias family noticed a strange intertwined set of flowers budding from what seemed to be one mega-stem. By June of this summer season, they counted a total of 50 different orange lilies coming from the same stem.

The phenomenon is often referred to as triplets or quadruplets of the mother stem and is as rare as 1 in 1 billion for as many as 50 of the flowers to occur naturally and create the globe-like bouquet that occurred in the Diases’ front yard.

The roots have been in the garden for eight years, but this is the first year it has intertwined to create such a phenomenon, and Margerida Dias does not believe it will return next year.

The garden was planted and maintained by Mrs. Dias and her husband, Antonio, as their love for plants and flowers has been instilled in them since they were together in Nea Aveiro, Portugal. In Portuguese culture, “everyone loves flowers because it reminds them of growth and tradition in a Portuguese household,” Mrs. Dias said.

The garden has more than 100 different species of flowers, including cacti and white grape vines for homemade, non-preservative wine every year. A flourishing organic vegetable garden of tomatoes, cucumbers, string beans, raspberries, blueberries and 16 different fruit trees are also on the 22,000-square-foot property.

Mr. Dias, the protector of his fruit trees, says that “deer, badgers and squirrels had been eating everything they could, but since I got an electric fence they leave them alone.”

He prides himself on grafting the trees with tape to allow four different types of plums on one tree, three different pear species on another, three different types of apples per tree, and nearly two different types of peaches on one tree. Overall, they have a chestnut tree, apple tree, peach tree, persimmon tree, pear tree, plum tree, and apple tree that fruit every year in such amounts they have to give baskets of produce to their friends and family.

It has become a tradition for Mrs. Dias to be in her garden and have people stop in their cars to talk with her about her garden. She will ask, “which ones do you like?” and then give them a bouquet or bag of produce to take home with them.

Mrs. Dias says the secret to keeping their garden in such good health is “mixing Miracle Gro feeder into the water and then water the plants with that. The second I do that, there are roots and I’ve made a plant.” It is as simple as that for the retired couple.

Mr. Dias’ love for his garden comes from his love of organic produce and nature for bees, hummingbirds and butterflies. “We are all organic because that makes the best kind of produce and happiest flower,” Mr. Dias said.

Every winter, like clockwork, Mr. Dias brings all of the potted plants they can into a greenhouse they built onto the side of their home. He then cuts the stems down to their bulbs and “lets the ground rest and protect the roots.”

The winter is when their 15 orchid flowers thrive, but it isn’t until March that new stems emerge after a long rainstorm and new plants collected over the winter are ready to be planted for the spring and summer months ahead.