I think you should try using reactor, creating the spline, applying the rope modifier and finally adding it to a rope collection.Then just adjust the properties as you like. This video could also help you.
Make sure you are woking in a linear workflow(monitor gamma 2.2 and 6500k aprox. You can find good more info about this topic here http://www.ronenbekerman.com/linear-workflow-made-simple/ ) in 3ds go to customize>preferences>gamma and lut. And enable the gamma and lut correction. Set gamma to 2.2, also enable "affect color selector" "affect material editor" and finally set 2.2 to "input gamma" bitmap files(leave output to 1.0). Now you may notice the diffence in the ME, use the material preview window and check if you got the color you want.
Besides that you have to consider that lighing also affects the colors, so you may want to use a bit darker color.
Actually he talk about: mask,booleans,lofts,reactor,particles and maxscript. But yeah, morph its another good option. I believe that with all this techniques we have some tools to work with.
I have been trying several ways to get a decent grass in mental ray, so far this is my the best attempt. I made with it mental ray material with heigh map displacement(cellular).
I would like to hear your opinion about it.
You can either use them or mr area spot, mr omni even photometric have a good effect for mental ray. For the shadows use ray traced shadows and adjust the samples in its shadows parameters.
