SAN JOSE, Calif. – While this year's El Niño rains have brightened the outlook for Bay Area nursery and gardening businesses heading into the summer, the new landscape ushered in by the California's water crisis might be here to stay, even if the drought is not.

Several businesses believe the shift toward more drought-tolerant landscaping is permanent despite the lifting of water restrictions that prompted many residents to let their lawns and plants go brown in recent years.

Oakland-based East Bay Wilds, a nursery and landscaping company that specializes in plants native to Northern California, has seen a huge uptick in business from people looking to landscape with native plants, such as the California lilac or manzanita, which often do not require as much water and maintenance as more foreign plants, according to owner Pete Veilleux.

"I think people are kind of waking up to the fact that the more we try to manage the landscape to suit just our needs, the more damage we do," Veilleux said. "The native plant landscaping has skyrocketed in the last few years, and we have more requests for work than we could possibly do."

Dave Stoner, president and CEO of Sloat Garden Centers, which has locations throughout the Bay Area, said his business will continue to emphasize xeriscaping (a form of gardening that reduces the need for irrigation) and landscaping with native and drought-resistant plants — something it has done for the past 20 years.

Even with the relaxed drought measures, it does not seem that many Bay Area consumers necessarily want to go back to their pre-drought ways.

Bay Area resident Jane Cordingley replaced her lawn with a more drought-resistant garden after she bought her home and saw the yard did not hold up well in the heat and drought. She's happy with the lower maintenance of the garden and the lower water bill.

And, she added, "[It is] a nicer-looking yard than a lawn and easier upkeep. I even gave my lawn mower away."

Drought is not the only challenge the garden industry has had to overcome. Among the worst years in recent memory for the industry were 2008 to 2010, during which California retail sales of lawn and garden products, including nursery items, declined $1.6 billion to $11.7 billion, according to a study from the University of California at Davis agricultural economist Hoy Carman.

Since then, rising home values and a better economy have boosted people's ability to invest in landscaping.