Thanks, an interesting suggestion. Please all, keep suggestions coming.

Muhlenbergia capilleris should grow in your Zone, I think. I will not reseed. Any of the muhlenbergias are not prolific reseeders. I also grow Muhlenbergia emersleyi. I have had to take the seed and germinate them in pots to get more plants. I have had one volunteer in many years. True, I am dry here compared to you so it might be different. I also would give the many Blustem grasses a good look.

Thanks, wantonamara, I am using Muhlenbergia capillaris in another spot; it's very beautiful this time of year. And the Little Bluestems in yet another; they are too tall for the spot I'm asking about. I do love the grasses.

How about elijah blue fescue grass. There are small bluestem also., like heavenly blue. I made a seed collection of one outside of Quemado New Mexico, that is saying under 6". so far. It turns a bright orange in its location. I am still waiting. I think that it might need cold to do that. This is its first year in the garden. We are just too warm here. Heavenly Blue Bluestem stays about 1 '.

Another option would be Molinia caerulia Variegata, variegated Purple Moor grass; small grass and very pretty. Not known to self seed around.

I have Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Piglet' for 4 years and it does not appear to self-sow in my garden (but 'Moudry' self-sowed wildly). Chasmanthium latifolium 'River Mist' self-sowed a little in 6 years (but the species Chasmanthium latifolium self-sowed everywhere). Molinia caerulea ssp. caerulea 'Variegata' and 'Moorflamme' seems to be well behaved.

Molinia caerulea ssp. caerulea 'Variegata' is a favorite. I led with Sesleria a. because of it being underused, thought you might not have tried it. What is the ideal height for your spot?

Self-seeding will depend on where you are located. Molinia caerulea 'Variegata' has escaped cultivation in a number of areas of the country, as have pennisetums, miscanthus, muhlenbergia, stipas, deschampsia and panicums. While all of these have the potential to self-seed (and some rather vigorously), it does depend a lot on location, summer and winter climates and the amount of water/rainfall they may receive.

Just an fyi, pretty much ANY native grass will self-seed.......otherwise they are not very well-adapted natives :-))

Judging from the Chicago study on miscanthus grasses for invasive characteristics , they found wide variation in viable seed from species to species and within each species. So the ones that are popping up came from the obviously non-sterile one. They did say a great grass for them was the P. alopecuroides "redhead' , and no mention of its invasiveness. The Park service has just issued a plant alert on that one.

I second peren.all's Sesleria autumnalis suggestion. It's a great compact grass for border fronts. I've been gradually pulling larger grasses (like prairie dropseed) from the first 2-3 of my hell strip along the sidewalk and replacing with Sesleria. I also have S. caerulea in other locations. It's even more compact, but it's closer in color to lawn fescue and so it's less appealing to me.

I have yet to find any other grass that I think is as well suited to border fronts as S. autumnalis. South and west of here there it sounds like there are a lot more possibilities. With an annual average of 39" of rain (and this year we're already at 45") most of those things don't do well or else grow too much and flop.

Mine do get some afternoon shade, which is probably best. We haven't had a droughty summer for a couple of years, so I can't say how it'll go when we do.

Many of the grasses that you talked about in this thread will not do well in Hot-hummid-dryish like where I am. We get the humidity without the rain.

So many grasses to think about. Re the Blue fescues. I have tried them in various spots over the years; most of the time they do very poorly and look pretty ugly. A couple of years ago I put in two about 2 1/2 feet apart. One is gorgeous, the other pretty ugly. I wish it were a dependable grass for me; it would be perfect in the spot I'm looking to plant.

If I can find the Sesleria autumnalis, I'd give it a try, I think. Another possibility for me would be Sporobolus heterolepsis; I have several of them and they do well wherever they are. But I was considering them for still another area, so might be too much of a good thing. BTW, it has never bloomed for me. I still like it.

There is also the many varied carexes. Great variations in color and texture. I can only grow the very xeric ones but you would have the moisture for them.

My hell strip bed was originally filled with Sporobolus heterolepis. Each year I pull more of them out. I love how they look early in the season, but the last couple of years they've gotten unruly later. I'm sure the extra rain we've had is part of it, and also that the soil is richer than they'd like. I had some with 5 foot (!) stems this year, many of which splay out messily. Too many of them in one place and it's a giant fuzzball from August onward. Mine have also seeded around quite a bit.

I'm keeping some that are farther back from the sidewalk, and I expect them to be better behaved in drier years that are sure to come. My suspicion is that they have their best garden form farther north of here.

@WoodsTea, TxR is loving them in her garden. She is leaner soiled and a bit dryer. They do not do well in Hot hot Texas so they do appreciate the winter cool down. I planted one and in two years it disappeared.

If prairie dropseed never bloomed for me I would probably like it better, laceyvail. Mostly I think my location isn't limiting enough for them -- not dry and lean enough -- so they are growing too much, past the point where they look nice. I am probably making it worse by removing so many of them, since the ones that are left have less competition, at least for now. I've had similar trouble with other supposedly short grasses, like blue grama.

I've heard that S. heterolepis 'Tara' is a shorter cultivar. It might be a better fit for my garden as well as yours. I also plan to put in a couple more Panicum virgatum 'Cheyenne Sky'. It's not short enough for the bed front when in bloom, but has worked well for me farther back, staying just under the 3 foot limit I've tried to maintain for driveway visibility. It has a tighter, more vertical form so there's less of that fuzzball effect, plus great fall color.

Btw I got my Sesleria autumnalis from Santa Rosa Gardens. They seem to have trouble keeping much of it in stock, but I've managed to pick up several small orders of them over time, and I plan to start dividing them next year.

I am extremely pleased with my S. heterolepis. It blooms but not heavily and even if they get weighted down with rain they pop right back up after. The fall color is a really wonderful orange/copper.

laceyvail so interesting that yours have never bloomed and yet WoodsTea yours bloom too tall perhaps too much for your spot. Clearly zone and growing conditions do play a big part with this one.

mara have you tried S. airoides?

I have tried S. aroides . They say it likes all the soil difficulties that I need to look out for, but it is native south of San Antonio, Big bend and then north to the pan Handle. Something has it not growing natively in my area. I did sprout them and put them out , but an intense summer got them . That happened to some S. wrightii also. They hung in for a couple of years. It broke my heart.. Again, up the rio grande valley , big Bend and into New Mexico. I have a big death rate amongst the things I put out in my wild zone.. I am looking to try again.

Re my non blooming S. heterolepsis. My soil is the most challenging I've ever seen in all my years of gardening--very sandy, acid, very low in nutrients. I've never had to pour so many soil amendments in for many years, and still some plants just will not grow for me--heucheras, tiarellas, aconitums, several cultivars of agastaches, and many others that have fallen by the wayside. I killed more plants in my first 10 years here than I had in my previous 30+ years of gardening. And the majority of the plants I brought with me from 4 miles up the road, croaked in the first couple of years. As far as grasses go, most have done well, but I cannot please Bouteloa or the blue fescues.

Several WV-native Carex suggestions for you, following wantonomara's suggestion, all of which can handle moderately dry sites:

Carex appalachia

Carex albicans

Carex eburnea

Of these C. albicans holds together best in a clump, if that's what you're looking for. It's quite low, more of a horizontal clump -- I think it looks especially nice massed under trees. Mine are under a linden that keeps the area very dry, but the sedge seems to do just fine. One source for these is Missouri Wildflowers Nursery. C. eburnea is finer textured, when massed there's a sort of brushed quality about it, again a nice one under trees.

For a sunny but wetter location here's one I like quite a lot:

Carex stricta

I've got some in a swale leading to my rain garden. They get more moisture than most parts of the yard but are almost never submerged. I also have fox sedge, C. vulpinoidea, in the rain garden itself, but at some point every year it gets floppy and somewhat matted down -- not my favorite look.

That's interesting about your acidic soil and a possible connection to your prairie dropseed not flowering. I've heard that it's at home in alkaline soils, having no problem in a soil with a pH of, say, 9. Mine was around 5.0 when I first tested it. I dug in quite a bit of lime when I first prepared the hell strip bed and I've added lime annually since to keep it closer to 7.