I'll try to keep this as short as I can. I don't have much experience gardening and am creating a container garden on my balcony, so sorry if my question is a basic one!

I recently moved to an apartment with a shady, north-facing balcony. At first, it got no direct sunlight at all, but (because of the movement of the sun) now it receives about two hours of direct sunlight in the morning, and is shaded for the rest of the day. I'm guessing the length of time it gets sun will increase as we get closer to summer, but I don't know by how much.

Back in early March, I began buying my plants. I knew this would be an issue due to the shade. I just can't get all that excited about a garden full of hostas ;) I bought several plants marked "full sun to part shade" with the knowledge that they'd probably die from not enough sunlight, but I wanted to give them a try just in case. One of these was a peony (I'm afraid I don't know the type), it was very small when I bought it (and came from one of those plastic-bag from Lowes deals).

It started to grow and now has two "main" leaves and another two or three little ones. However, about a week ago, one of the "main" leaves flopped over - the stem looked like it had been bent in half. Shortly after, the stem to the second "main" leaf did the same thing. I staked them both but the bent places haven't healed; they've just become shriveled (although the leaves are still looking normal for now). This morning, I noticed that there is another shriveled or "bent" looking place further down the main stem (despite the staking), which means that only one of the little leaves at the base of the plant is unaffected.

So my question is, is this what happens when the plant doesn't get enough light? Or could it be caused by something else? It has been getting plenty of water and is in a huge container, so I doubt either of those is the issue. We haven't had any cold or frosty weather, either. If this is a sign that the peony definitely won't make it, then I'll pull it up and fill the container with something else. If it still has a decent shot (of growing and staying alive - I know it won't flourish in such shady conditions), then I'll leave it be.

Any thoughts?