I forgot to mention, it's in full sun. Thanks!

The northern sea oat grass is beautiful. One of my favs....

How about a Japanese grass? Blood Grass or maybe a hakona?

How about zebra grass? Dwarf non-invasive bamboo?

I have Sporobolus airoides and Indian ricegrass (Oryzopsis hymenoides). Both are drought tolerant and don't spread. Check out High Country Gardens. They have a wide selection of grasses and lots of very good growing information.

I find that Karl Foerester takes more water than you are planning to provide. Also, panicums don't do well for me and take forever to green up in the spring as they are a warm season grass. You might look into the the Muhlenbergia (Muhly) grasses. They are beautiful! The bluestems are also very drought tolerant and have good fall color.

I have 7 'Shenandoah Red' switch grasses and love them. I planted 2 tiny clumps a few years ago (it was actually 1 clump in a small pot and I divided it because I'm cheap ;) and I love them so much I planted more this spring. One of them on the east side of my house (morning sun only) is on a drip emitter and has grown quite a bit, probably ~24" wide or so. The other is in an area facing west (afternoon sun) where I don't irrigate at all. That one isn't nearly as wide, but it does just fine on nothing but rainwater. I love their red highlights, but my favorite season for this grass is fall when they turn shades of orangey-red before going dormant. I don't have experience with the other grass you're considering, but I can highly recommend Shenandoah Red. It doesn't seem invasive at all, and unlike the Miscanthus, it doesn't die out in the center and require division to keep it vigorous. I think you'd only need to divide it if it got wider than you wanted, but if you're planning on putting it in a dry area I don't think you'd have to worry at all about it getting too wide.

My suggestion would be sand lily. If transplanted into an area with better soil and more moisture this thing WILL change to look exactly like a grass (but with flowers), and will grow tall. But in it's native habitat in the dry areas around here it grows short, and is very ornamental when flowering.

Thanks for the input everyone. I ended up buying the 'Shenandoah Red' switch grass at the Botanic Gardens sale, so I am so happy to read your post, almondstriations! And after reading about some of the other interesting grasses and sand lily, I may have to find some more areas to plant with them :).

Trish

Hi Flower Garden! If you have additional areas needing grasses, do consider Blue Oat Grass (Helictotrichon). It is a cool season grass, as is C. 'Karl Foerster', so it looks nice right away in spring and has beautiful arching blooms in summer. I grow 5 kinds of Calamagrostis, several Festucas, Panicums, Miscanthus, Deschampsia, Bouteloua, Little Bluestem, and another personal favorite Molinia variegata here in Zone 4 in Montana. I hope you enjoy your new grass! Bonnie