Miscanthus purpurescens never did very well for me. One of the problems was that it was highly susceptible to frost, and I'm in what's known locally as a frost pocket--that is, subject to frosts long after the rest of the county is frost free. None of the many other grasses I grow were bothered by this. Calamagrostis Karl Foerster is a terrific grass, upright and relatively narrow, and it blooms in summer, so by fall when most of the other grasses are blooming, it is gold colored. I also like Schizachyrium scoparium 'The Blues' much better than the Panicums. The colors both in summer and fall/winter are gorgeous.

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.

Most OG's want well-drained soils and any pennisetum will require the same. And late in the season would be August or later in my area..........or when seedheads begin to form. Once the seedheads start to form (or should be forming), the plant is starting to enter dormancy and the roots stop extending. This makes successful establishment before winter tricky at best. Ideally, warm season grasses should be planted at the start of their growing season - May or June.

The named varieties of Big Blue I bought from SRG are very slow growing compared to other grasses. The foliage is low and grows stiffly vertical more than mounding. All summer the leaves are only about 1.5 ft tall and deep dark green and then in mid August stems start climbing--- they are thin, see-through and turn very deep red. Now the leaves are turning. Blackhawks is very deep red and this one seems less vigorous than the others. I planted several in front of Northwind panicum and it makes a very nice combination in fall for color and texture. Indian Grass and Big Blue are both clumpers, neither is a runner type that spreads underground invasively, the clump just gets bigger over time. I divided a large clump of Indian Grass late last summer (the new ones took a bit of time to establish this year but are now off and running) and removed another large clump of 'Indian Steel' this year because it was sticking out in all directions. I decided I don't care for that cultivar. I cut it through the roots right below the soil line with a big butcher knife by sections, wasn't too bad and it went pretty quick. I often get rid of clumps like that, it eliminates digging and disturbing my gravel mulch. I replaced it with a 'Red October' Big bluestem. There is no way Big Bluestem could be considered or listed as invasive, in fact its rarely seen anymore which is sad because once the tall grass prairie was described as a 'sea of red' in fall by early settlers. Now its cultivated fields or abandoned or cities. The only stands I've seen around here are a spot by Norman and one up just east of Edmond. I see Indian Grass and Switchgrass more often but even so, those are not terribly abundant either, not as abundant as LBS. Indian Grass always stands out along the roadside because of the light blue color & texture, its always pretty even before blooming or going yellow in late fall. A mature clump is much more attractive than a juvenile.