I'm usually on the Cottage Garden or Carolina forums. However, I'd like to create an ornamental grasses garden at the top of a slope above my butterfly garden. I already have a few grasses and sedges mixed throughout all of the gardens and am really pleased with the results.

I'm in zone 7 and the area is on the eastern side of the house and will get southern and western sun all day. Although the butterfly garden is on the slope, this is a relatively flat area that slowly descends to the back of the house. The morning sun shines through the grasses that I already have on that side, so I'd like to have a lot of tall plumes with a variety of colors to catch that morning sparkle in autumn.

I can use very large grasses (height and width) and a lot of grasses. The soil is poor in that area, but I can bring in good garden soil (as I did for all of my gardens) if necessary. I prefer drought-lovers to save water, but am fond of miscanthus -- my cosmopolitan is great as a backdrop to orange and purple flowers in the butterfly garden and the little zebra is great in my mixed border of perennials, shrubs and bulbs.

What are your favorite combinations that can co-exist with the same growing conditions? If you could create a grasses garden from scratch, what would you plant?

Thanks,
Cameron

Other grasses I really like are the 'Pennisetum' Fountain Grasses. Hameln, Cassian and Karly Rose are my favorites from that family. Karly Rose is a quick grower. I purchased one this year in the smallest pot available and it's almost as big as a lot of shrubs we have.

All of these grasses I mentioned I would put together in a grass garden. I have all these grasses planted throughout our garden.

What about hardy sugar cane, Saccharum arundinaceum ? Is it really as beautiful as the photos that I've seen?

Thanks!
Cameron