Good outdoor plants for apartment living?

I'm planning on starting my own little green space on the balcony of my apartment....but I'm a bit clueless when it comes to plants Does anyone know of some good potted plants that thrive in the shade?

yea, you need to get one Perilla (Magilla Purple) -- get a medium-large size pot....it has the colors of dark plum, dark green and hot pink. Its mounding and spreading body is heat tolerant and will grow in the shade. It will get up to 24-36" tall and will spread about 24-30 " -- it will just be so beautiful if you like that kind of stuff.

That's a pretty plant, I'm going to the garden centre this afternoon and I wrote downt the name of it. I love the colours....very pretty

There was a plant i had that was very tropical like and didnt need sunlight, i totally forgot the name of it but i have a picture.
It also grows in the shade. And you dont have to water it untill it dries out
I bought it from Ikea last year

Sorry its a bad quality picture because it was taken with my mobile phone, but on the top shelf you can see the Plant.
I absolutely loved it, and cried when i left it in frankfurt and my mother watered it every day and it just died

It looks like a corn plant (Dracaena species)

Originally Posted by Miss Mew

That's a pretty plant, I'm going to the garden centre this afternoon and I wrote downt the name of it. I love the colours....very pretty

Click to expand...

One more great thing about this plant is that it is low maintence. The lady at the nursey told me that you have to let the plant talk to ya...as in when it starts to wilt a little that means it needs water but dont water it unless it starts doing that because its so easy to over water this plant. So for me, thats alot more convienent because sometimes i get caught up and "forget" to water LOL

Regular (not New Guinea) impatiens, begonias (double begonias are really pretty) and geraniums are good for shade too.

It's fun having a balcony to grow plants on! I'm looking into some shade-liking ones too. I'm going to get railing hooks so I can have the planters over the other side of the rails to make more space.
I was concerned about cat toxic plants, but I figure the boys will never be out there unattended, so we don't have to worry.
So far, all I've got out there are a couple of catnip plants my friend gave me. The boys go straight for them when we let them out there!

Hanging plants create a nice atmosphere too...i have a dark lavender vein trailing petunia in one of my hanging pots...you just have to be sure to keep them watered!

Snake plants & wax plants are very low maintence-little care/love shade/ wax plants are great vine plants ,too with neat pink umbrella -shaped flowers

I'm back from the garden centre!! I could wander around there all day...it's huge!!. I couldn't find the "Perilla" plant (but I will keep my eyes out ) But I did get a fern and some impatiens

You should be able to find coleus plants (they are annuals). I but them for the leaf colors and the flowers are insignificant. They are very shade loving.
There are many perennials you can keep in pots too like hostas and heuchera's.
Other shade tolerant annuals would be Browallia (bluish purple flowers), Mimulus, forget me nots, Torenia, Nemophila and Nicotiana

Hostas or boston ferns should do well for you