Its all a matter of personal choice but I do want to share an idea with you. I got started on my interest in ornamental grasses last year because the Historical Museum here put in a new building with a grass landscape. It is all native grasses. You cannot believe how stunning it is. I see the typical ornamental grasses everywhere but this is truly a work of art and has the added benefit of preserving what has been nearly destroyed in this country through the loss of our prairies.

They have massed together a fairly large area of little blue stem and planted in mass its one unbelievable, very vertical waving sea of blue/grey. One is pretty, a dozen or more is gorgeous and makes a statement.

Then they have a big hill that has huge rocks and planted rather thickly among these are sideoats gamma, prairie dropseed, purple three awn, lovegrass and some blue gamma. It is a glorious haze of subtle color which starts blooming rather early in summer.

The tall vertical grasses, that are also massed, are a silvery blue, every erect stand of Indian Grass (probably Sioux Blue) and Big bluestem which is topped with masses of red seed heads.

There is another area set aside for pink Muhly grass and in the setting sun, this one could cause car wrecks from people gawking. I simply did a jaw drop when I saw it.

Also, if you are looking for a bit of variety to the choices you made, check out the Lindheimerii and Deer (Rigens) Muhly grasses and the Sacaton Wrightii grass. If you want a big one, the Sacaton Wrightii would certainly fit the bill. I ordered 4 from High Country Gardens who carries a very vigorous strain. The Panicums would add some texture to your scheme and some fall color, especially the red ones.

One good thing, these are all low water grasses and on some of them you can either trim them in spring or not, its up to you. Most will also grow easily from seed.

Thanks for the suggestions. I had never looked at Sioux Blue Indian Grass. I like that a lot. I have looked at Muhly grass and I am not convinced I have enough room to mass it enough.

I have all winter to think and look. That's the problem sometimes. You see so many but you know in the end you should start with a few and do those right.

I'm doing a strip along the west side of my yard where I just took out a mature privet hedge and now have 6 feet x 100 feet of empty space to fill and I am doing the same thing, trying to decide what will look best, combinations and how many varieties etc. I don't want to end up with a mess and I agree with the "keep it simple" approach you are taking. I have all winter to decide too and indeed, there are a lot of choices. Its daunting.

I also chose and ordered three of the Sarabande and I thought its a nice olive color compared to the silver Miscanthus when they got here. I got 6 of the Karl Forrester. The Hameln are very nice for filler and you can find them real easily and I think as a base you have made real good choices (since we chose the same thing, Ha!). The second two will give you earlier blooms so thats good. Are you going through these same planning scenerios? I'm mixing in some native grasses as well but only have so many absolute full sun areas. I deal with some part shade.

It sounds like you have a nice backdrop, I'm jealous. I need to hide the view of an ugly yard next door, so I am doing the large Sacaton Wrightii as a screen in one part of the area.

I checked out the book "The American Meadow Garden" by John Greenlee from the library and he has a lot of photos where you can see different grasses in different seasons and get ideas of masses plantings. Another book is the encyclopedia of grasses by him and in it he has some professional garden plans for grasses that might be good to look at. Otherwise, I have been online for hours looking at different grass combinations in different seasons and trying to visualize.

Probably I will end up editing whatever I do, I always seem to do that. One type I ordered seeds of from Pase Seed is a red tussock grass from Australia called "Chionochloa rubra". You have to check out that one out! Its gorgeous! They carry some interesting seeds and I got three kinds. I am winter sowing them because these grasses can get expensive when you are filling a large area. We have all winter after all, so it gives me something to do.