Hi and I should introduce myself... I pop in maybe once a year or so. I currently garden in the Houston area (zone 9) but have also lived in south Texas (9/10 depending on who asks.) I have a west-facing balcony over a parking lot, and my balcony temps generally top out at 103F *almost daily* from May to Sept. Talk about a heat island.

I find that a big part of what lives and what dies is the size of the pot. Only succulents will live in 6 inches or smaller unless you're religious about watering (and sometimes even if you are!) and/or they get some shade. Ten inches and bigger does much better - a lucky accident, for me, that my $2 herbs lived but my $20 citrus trees survived.

I have 2 citrus (meyer lemon, satsuma 'kimborough'), fig 'celeste,' pomegranate (p. compacta) which got a little toasty while we were away a week and lost most of its leaves but has buds for next year. Rose 'Pink Knockout,' which is buggy right now but keeps growing despite it. Basil in a 2-gallon did pretty well.

I do like succulents... actually wish I could grow more because my balcony is half-shaded, so I don't have lots of full-sun space, and it's already full.

So some other reccomendations:
Bouganvilla. Loves it hot! My mom has these on her arid, toasty west patio. Caveat: they take a while to settle if you molest their roots, don't like really windy spots, and they're thorny.

Sweet Potato vine. But it's very thirsty.

Tradescantia 'purple heart.' Ok, so it's a big viney weed, but the color is gorgeous in full/partial sun: lightly fuzzy purple leaves with almost turquoise tones beneath.

Kalanchoe blossifeldiana: okay, it's a succulent, but it has such great flowers. It *almost* looks like a normal plant.

Lemongrass. that is, I'm sure it would do great, if my cats would just stop eating it.

The praying mandids eat other bugs, not plants. Keep those guys around.

Unglazed clay pots would have the advantage of cooling those roots a few degrees when water evaporates through the pores. obviously you need to water more often because of this.

I use a chipped-wood mulch on my bigger pots. You're right, pebbles will probably just heat it up more.

Now my biggest problem is finding plants that tolerate that heat *in the shade,* which is my last frontier. I got some wax begonias, a davalia fern, an anthurium and a fittonia to go out in the summer. The orchids can go out some of the time; I'm going to put some tubs of water under the shelves to raise humidity. I've got kind of zone confusion with the mediterranian/desert thing going on above the ledge and a woodsy-jungly thing below.

But mostly... I don't want to think about it too much. It's been warm even now... I'm outside putting up with the dark laptop screen because it's actually *cool!* for once.

BTW I love your screen name. But please tell me you don't *really* drown children! :)

Thanks, whytephoenix. Hope you see this before your next annual visit!
I am sure you're right about big pots. And really grateful about the praying mantis info - I like them!
Best plant for me last year for hot shade I found was asparagus sprengerii - really tough, looked beautiful and cool and lush, and actually produced white flowers - insignificant but delicately pretty. I sprayed with water quite regularly. Now has overwintered successfully and beginning to produce new fronds.
BTW I posted my original on "Container Gardening" as well afterwards, because as someone says later on this Balcony site, it does seem virtually moribund, and I did get more replies on Container site. You might like to try it.
All good wishes.
PS. No I don't eat small children! The original folk tale from the north of england (where I come from) is that Jenny Greenteeth is the beautiful greenhaired maiden who lives in streams and lures young men to their deaths. (It's the long green weed that grows in flowing streams). But I am not beautiful and definitely don't have green hair - just a reference to the folk tales from childhood! And my first choice user names were already in use.

Glad to hear the asparagus fern worked for you... I have one I planted from seed. it's doing well but growing very slowly.

The version of Jenny Greenteeth that I'd heard was that she drowned little kids and ate them - or at least that's what mothers told their children so they wouldn't get too close to the water.

Does anyone know when Kalanchoes are not in bloom? I would like to plant some in now for a front border instead of begonias.

Anyone here using 'self-watering' containers?
I don't live in a balcony residence but enjoy the subject and seeing what others are doing with these niche spaces in the sky.
I'm considering getting a self-watering container for my mint plants since they seem to enjoy getting their feet wet while also enduring a fair amount of direct sun. I'm just curious if anyone here has tried these containers, and if so, what they thought.

This is my first post in this forum so if this has already been discussed here, please forgive the redundancy.