Plants

Now that Paris is beginning to bloom, I would love to put plants on our balcony and inside!  At home our garden is taken seriously (I think I've said this before) and in the winter our lime tree moves indoors to my room so it can still be in the sun without any snow... Anyways, I've been seeing star-shaped white clematis everywhere (it almost looks like jasmine) that I would love to put up, or maybe just become very French and have topiaries.... what do you think?  Have you guys ever grown plants on balconies?  What works well, and what doesn't?

Growing up, I called this Sweet Autumn Clematis - it grows fast and thick and would look lovely on a wrought-iron balcony, don't you think?  

(photo from here)

I'm not a huge topiary person - it looks a little too forced to me (I grew up in a rambling, English-cottage-style garden), but if you're going to do topiary, you may as well go all the way, no?

(photo from here)