Cadence - Lucky you having a south/east baconly location. I am in the Okanagan, B.C. I am on a third floor condo too, but I face north east - which is alot more shady and leaves little choices but for shady plants. The first plant I thought of was the Honeysuckle They are valued for their pretty flowers, which are sweetly scented, and their decorative fruits, which birds find delectable. The climbing Honeysuckles are suitable for growing over a trellis, arch, or pergola, while the shrubby kind are great for growing in borders and rock gardens, and as hedges. Their trumpet-shaped flowers are borne from late winter or early spring to late summer and range in color from cream and light yellow to vivid scarlet and purplish-rose. They are followed by pretty fruits that may be white, yellow, orange, red, blue, and black. POTTING: These plants will live in almost any soil, though they prefer a moist loam enriched with organic matter. They will benefit from being mulched, except with manure, which promotes the growth of foliage at the expense of the flowers. Their roots should be in shade and most prefer part or even full shade, although some flower best with their heads in full sun. This should be perfect on your balcany if you can have the root base protected from the sun. The stems of young plants should be shortened to encourage early branching and produce a full, bushy plant. Once this is achieved, pruning should only be done to keep the plants in bounds and to thin them out once there is a lot of old wood. This pruning should be done right after flowering; Honeysuckles that flower in late summer should be pruned in early spring. Shrubby Honeysuckles should have their old flowering shoots thinned out and cut back to within a few inches of the old wood right after flowering. Another little [annual] plant I thought of for filling bare spots in containers and also for their fabulous scent is alyssum. The tiny white flower variety seems more hardy than the maulve/purple/blue - just my humble opinion. These tiny florals love sun or partial shade. They multiply fast, so fill in is quick! If you plant them near your sitting area, the fragance is so pleasant....

One problem could be that even "full sun" plants (needing 6+ hours of direct sunlight) are not acclimated to being placed in intense sunlight after we buy them. Many times they are grown in greenhouses during the autumn and winter months receiving sufficient light for growth, but this is nothing like the "el scorcharoo" hot spring/summer sunlight we situate them in. They probably are being in a shaded in a garden centre for weeks afterward too. I'm embarrassed to say as a professional horticulturist that I killed half of my CACTI collection one year by placing them in hot sunlight during the spring months, after they had been indoors receiving sunlight in a south facing window. Since they were no longer under a ceiling and surrounded by walls, that made all the difference. They burned up. Oh me, oh my. Take Jenny's suggestion and slowly over the weeks bring full sun plants into full sun.

I would just bring the pot into your garage if you can, or your house. As the temperature gets colder, you may see the culms start to die, and becuase the plant is in a pot, the entire root system may suffer. Just watch the weather. If you think it is too cold, trim it down, and haul it inside.

No replies? Pity! I am not exactly a novice gardener, but I have all the same questions as the OP! My gardening experience is not much use, as I will be moving from a quarter-acre subarctic, semi-arid, high altitude USDA Zone 2-4 area in western Canada to an inner city apartment in the Northwestern US with a (relatively) large Zone 8-9 roofdeck (not unlike the UK), where I want to do all the same things as the OP. Automated watering and drainage (without damage to the building membrane) are my initial concerns. I haven't found any drainage "trays" large enough for my purposes, so I am leaning to improvising one with some kind of sheet flooring material with some kind of edging, with some kind of channel leading to the existing floor drain, perhaps disguised with with smooth pebbles. I have seen some excellent lightweight garage flooring systems for lifting traffic and sitting areas above any puddles. Black planter boxes would be ideal for other areas, though, again I haven't found an existing product large, basic and inexpensive enough for my needs. The one essential I have in mind, though, is that the drain must be on the side wall, not the bottom, and (since it is a wet climate) I will also install a vertical PVC pipe from which excess water can be pumped from the bottom, if necessary. Good drip irrigation systems are readily available, so no worries there. Plant materials are another universe of questions. What vines, trees and shrubs will withstand and flourish (i.e. bulk up) in this windy environment? Parts of the deck will have full sun until early afternoon, but the principal exposure is NE, which will be less suitable for crops or flowers. But some lush evergreens, vines, groundcovers, a Japanese maple, and some herbs and salad greens would be splendid. Has anyone tried growing bamboo in such a location? That would make an awesome screen or backdrop. And if it blows over, no great loss.