There was once a Belgian aristocrat of Spanish decent who made it to Montreal to build a new life.  His name was Carlos d’Alcantara and he was madly in love with a French ballerina.  Carlos’ parents didn’t want him to have anything to do with the young girl who wasn’t from the same world as him so he decided to abandon everything and took a boat to Montreal and settled in Tétreaultville.

At that time, there were no streets or sidewalks outlining the roads in the Eastern part of the Island.  This time was 1917.  For Carlos d’Alcantara, all had to be started from scratch but this ingenious builder had a mind set on business.  He cultivated melon for a time and started working with flowers in 1925.  Without knowing it, he had planted the seed to what would become the most recognized florist name in the Montreal region.

When Carlos passed in 1926, Joseph, one of his sons, took over the business.  He then passed on his knowledge to his four brothers who also wanted to bloom on their own and start their own greenhouses.  Two of them chose to stay in Eastern Montreal.

The first d’Alcantara store, corner of Notre-Dame and Pierre-Bernard streets, will be the Head Office up to the beginning of the 90’s.  Joseph d’Alcantara will pass his knowledge on to his son Marcel, who in turn, will pass it on to his daughter Micheline.  Only then do we find a wide range of floral and gardening services.

When Dany, Micheline’s daughter, is of age to learn the craft, her grandfather takes her under his wing.  ‘’At seventeen, she says, I had other plans like joining the Army.  But after working with my mother and grandfather during the Valentine’s Day and other holiday rushes, I got to liking the florist profession.’’  That’s all it took for the fifth generation of the d’Alcantara empire to enter the universe of flowers.

The d’Alcantara women follow the d’Alcantara men

Three years later, at only 20 years of age, Dany Gaudet changed the course of things for the family business.  At this time things are crazy and she finds it more and more difficult to work with family, particularly her grandfather, with whom she has major differences.  Personalities and generations collide:  ‘’It’s not always easy to work with family.  Working together goes like this:  I think of something, my mom thinks of something else and then my grandfather thinks of yet another thing.  I had to make a choice between my career and my grandfather.  I chose my grandfather.’’

Dany then decides to leave her grandfather’s store and looks for another job as a florist.  During that same time, Micheline continues to work with her father on a part time basis.  One day out of the blue, tired of being unemployed, Dany goes to see her mom and says: ‘’Mom, why don’t we open our own shop?’’  Micheline can’t get over the guts her daughter has, so young with no business experience or training.  But that doesn’t matter because she trusts her daughter and lets her convince her of joining into the venture.

On July 18th, 2007, they opened their own store in Longueuil.  They remember the struggles like it was just yesterday.  Dany tells about it:  ‘’We were four to work in a 460 square foot room and the fridge took up 80 of them.  During holidays, customers were lining up all the way to outside!  When we officially opened, some people said that our store wasn’t up to the d’Alcantara name because it was too small.  That hurt, but we were starting from scratch!  We had limited means and no customer database.  There were days where we’d sell a violet for $6.50 plus taxes!  God knows that you have to sell a lot of violets to pay the rent.’’

Today, the skeptics have definitely been proven wrong.  The D.M. D’Alcantara store in Longueuil now has a ‘respectable’ surface of 2,000 square feet and business is good.  Another turning point in the business’ history is the acquisition of Paul d’Alcantara’s store in 2001.  Micheline and Dany purchased the 5,000 square foot store situated on Sherbrooke street, corner of Langelier.

Question:  why the new ‘’Les Dames d’Alcantara’’ name?  Ingenuous answer from Micheline:  ‘’ To differentiate ourselves from all of the men who came before us in the business!’’

The tradition evolves

From the start of her business life, Dany Gaudet understood the importance of acquiring good habits to preserve her family’s health as well as the business’:  ‘’The important thing, she says, is to avoid talking about it at home because we’re always together.  At one time, I didn’t even feel like going to my mom’s!’’

‘’We’ve progressed, adds Micheline.  We used to talk about it all the time at home but we don’t let it invade us anymore.’’  If the d’Alcantara florists have a wonderful notoriety in the domain, it’s because of their know-how but also because it’s a family business, as says Marcel d’Alcantara:  ‘’Customers love to see generations follow each other in business.  Such continuity inspires confidence and portrays stability.  And in our case, five generations is impressive!  This is a very rare thing in business and people find it great!’’.

The grandfather raises his hat to his granddaughter who implemented a new floral arrangement style.  ‘’I would have loved to introduce a new style 30 or 40 years ago, but the public wasn’t ready.  People wanted wreaths, big bouquets filled with the same flowers and the same colours’’.

‘’But today, continues his granddaughter, there are so much more possibilities with close to a variety of 4,500 flowers; some that come from Holland, the Equator and even Thailand.  What I find hard is trying to break old habits.  Too many people still associate d’Alcantara to ‘’pumps – gladiolas – traditional style’’ even if we constantly try to create new things.  New flowers, new styles that play with texture, movement, simplicity and respect the flower's true nature.  However, more and more people are starting to look for what is different.’’

So, the so called ‘’American’’ style, with wreaths and overcharged triangles are things of the pass!  Dany Gaudet is the one who says it!  For the latest tendencies in floral arrangements, just come and visit Dames d’Alcantara florist, corner of Sherbrooke East and Langelier…

In May 2006, because of her son’s birth, Dany decided not to renew her lease in the Longueuil store; this was no easy decision.  After 10 years in business, she decided to merge both stores to the one on Sherbrooke street, which allows her to give better service to her customers and have a balanced family life.

A huge emotional thank you to all of our Longueuil customers who were loyal to us and who still accompany us in our beautiful dream called Floral Art.