I did some C4D tests today with groundcover (Vizpark groundcover) using the "hair tool" and Mograph cloner on a landscape object. Really simple and random placement of about 6 groundcover objects.
What really worked well in terms of workflow is that the painted hairstrands can be filled with any type and amount of objects using a randomizer to scale and rotate. Afterwords you can still ajust the landscape form and all moves along. Next post I will add a screenshot of the C4D window.
Rendered this one on a 5 year old iMac in about 5 min. A bit noisy but enough to see whats going on....