I have had good luck with a plant called "German Ivy" up here. It's not a climber but will trail down nicely from window boxes about 6-7 feet. It's a rich green and actually prefers NOT to be in direct sun.

Wow! I envy your deck and flower boxes! Does your deck have a roof over it? Or wrap around the house? Because if it is just attached to the west side of your house all the boxes should get a lot of light even if some do face North.

You probably already have your boxes planted, but if not, here are some more ideas. First off, if you want viney plants Helichrysum Silver Mist is awesome. The more sun it gets the more silver it is (the less sun the more greenish). Also it helps fill up boxes well because it gets about 18-24" wide...incredible in boxes. And the Vinca Maculata vine is very striking (dark green leaf with yellow central veining). I have done thousands of pots/baskets/barrels/beds for a large theme park and love designing mixed containers. Another popular filler for boxes are any of the Wave type petunia, some trail more than mound, some visa versa...lots of variety. I could go on and on about what works great.

Here is a site with some great arrangements for sun, part-shade, full-shade containers. Gives you great pics of different plants. Also, remember if you like an arrangement but it is in say an urn...you can still re-arrange it into a windowbox. It's just a matter of thinking "Okay, here I want a trailer...and here I want some height...and here I don't like that plant, but I can substitute this plant..." etc etc etc. I just sort of see drifts and waves of color and texture everytime I look at a container then I look up the plants I need to create it. It really is easy. Plus annuals grow anywhere and you are in a great zone for all plants.

From this site you can also link to Simply Beautiful Gardens and get a lot more information. Also click on "Plants" at the top of the screen and there you will be able to pull up listings for sun or shade.

So these two places will give you ideas and there are many more out there. Let me know if I can help any more as I have a lot of "recipes" for mixed containers. There are also tons of books out there of recipes for containers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant by Number Combos