Grandma tallies the books, Grandpa delivers the flowers, Mom crafts the arrangements, and the 20-month-old daughter guides customers through photo albums of floral designs.

At Lily Pad Floral Design, business blossoms in a family kind of way.

“We put the family to work,” says Rebecca Perry, mother of toddler, Gia, and owner of Lily Pad. Gia is the youngest family “helper” at the Hermosa Beach flower shop run by Perry and her mother, Katherine Williams.

Mimicking her mother and grandmother, Gia also takes calls and scribbles illegible notes. “She’s a budding florist for sure,” Perry says.

As the family of florists at Lily Pad grows, so do those of its customers. “We have watched families grow (through) courtship, marriage, baby, children’s dances,” Perry said. “Courtship is great; divorce is not good, we lose customers. If they get remarried, it’s good.”

Lily Pad also has created flowers for several TV shows including “Party of Five,” “CSI” and “The O.C.”

Although the business custom designs floral arrangements for retail, businesses and special occasions, it is shifting its focus to weddings — its cash cow. Retail forces it to stock flowers and plants that could go to waste, literally and financially. “That’s the problem with perishables,” Perry says.

By focusing on weddings, Lily Pad’s owners can order more precisely. The move to a hidden spot on Hermosa Avenue two years ago decreased walk-in traffic, helping it move away from retail, which requires greater overhead but brings in less income.

Its current space is three times larger than its original location on Pier Avenue, where the business needed to rent a warehouse for storage. Lily Pad also lowers its costs by sharing the store with Ogden Photography.

Perry says demand for flowers has grown, as has the competition. Grocery chains and Home Depot pose greater threats than florists because Lily Pad can’t match their low prices, she says. Perry doesn’t see floral shops in the area as rivals because they refer customers to one other. Lily Pad can only serve a limited number of customers.

The shop has three contracted designers and an intern from the Southern California Regional Occupational Center in Torrance, which teaches floral design among other vocations. But Perry and Williams enjoy the small business.

“I’m a control freak,” Perry says. “I like to have my hand in everything.”

To Perry and Williams, floral design is a passion first and a business second. They often provide flowers at cost for funerals, mostly for friends.

“I can’t make money off of somebody’s misfortune,” Perry says. Initially, Lily Pad set its prices so low that it struggled to offset its overhead.

“I wouldn’t spend that kind of money on a wedding,” Perry says. “I’m more practical.”

However, after learning what other florists in the area were charging, she raised prices.

The store will get about $200,000 in sales volume for 2006.

Williams keeps the books but has a hand in the flower arrangements. She also enjoys gardening, painting and weaving as hobbies.

The mother-daughter team balance each other out. Perry often splurges when shopping for flowers. “I have expensive taste in flowers,” she said. “If I didn’t have her, I wouldn’t be in business.”

As a girl growing up in Manhattan Beach, Perry pieced together bouquets with flowers she picked outside. She always kept some in her bedroom.

While studying at Santa Barbara City College, she operated a flower stand. But after college, she pursued another art, glass blowing, in Seattle. She eventually returned to the South Bay to work at a floral store, where she learned the trade on the job.

“I love what I’m doing, but I want control of whether I’m going to be here,” Perry remembers thinking. She got her wish when she teamed up with her mother to start a flower shop called Lily Pad.

Perry, 38, creates most of the floral designs, drawing inspiration from such sources as fashion trends, Vincent Van Gogh’s work and movies. She describes her style as funky and “inspired by nature.” Perry sometimes incorporates live plants, feathers and lotus pods.

“I wish more people would see (floral design) as an art,” Perry says. “I think it’s an art form that’s underappreciated.”

Perry says she always wanted a job that allowed her to bring her child to work.

“One day (Gia) can say she grew up in a flower shop,” Perry says.