Taking a cue from architectural design, Oudolf prioritizes the seasonal life cycle of the plants over decorative considerations like flowers or colours.

He focuses primarily on structural characteristics, such as leaf or seed pod shape, present before and after a plant has flowered.

The result are gardens that persist in their planned state years after being planted, with little deviation from Oudolf's hand drawn maps.

More recently Oudolf's gardens have experimented with a variety of approaches which, broadly speaking, are more naturalistic, often using blends of species.

[citation needed] Oudolf's work on the High Line relied heavily on plants native to the region.