East side meaning morning sun? My front porch faces east. It's home to ferns (one in a hanging basket the other in a large pot), spider plants (both are in pots, but would work great in hanging baskets), and a cast iron plant.

I also have lots of ferns, and begonias, which love the heat give lots of color and variety also.

With a hot area and just morning sun (afternoon shade) you could probably create something quite nice with gingers.
Hedychium likes a half a day of sun, and smells great when it blooms.

Thinking about it, maybe Gardenias would work well in that situation. I constantly dream of having empty garden spaces to fill with whatever I want!!

I have zz plant, peperomia, fuschias, impatients, devil's backbone, and a few unknown succulents on my porch..they are lush and lovely, easy care..bedazzled

my front porch faces due west, and is quite small. We rarely spend any time there, so I decorated simply, with an old oriental-style rug; a charleston-style bench, and some birdhouses. I have seen 1 other person besides myself sit there, and that wasn't for long - it just gets too much sun and heat! Thus, the decor is for looks, but for comfort we go inside or around back to the screened porch! no plants except for a creeping-fig topiary form I started last christmas... I have enough other plants in the cottage garden to keep it from seeming sparse. I added a couple of wind chimes and was good to go - now I can ignore the heck out of it!

My front porch is mostly shade except for early morning, and I keep ferns, philodendrons, Pothos, Swedish Ivy, Christmas Cactus (which blooms profusely when I bring it in,) Monstera deliciosa, Draceana, Snake Plant, begonias, and Alocasia. On my back porch which gets a lot of sun, some spot more than others, I grow coleus, spider plants, lysimachia, million bells, asparagus fern, sedums and aloes.
Boo

Passion Flower. It will climb all over the screen, and the flowers are unique and spectacular. There are several varieties. I just looked for it on the www and got this site... http://www.passionflower.org/

check it out. I only thought of it because last year I visited a friend who had some growing on her screen.... It was pretty cool.

Our screened porch is facing east, too, and has some overhanging trees that only allow a few hours of filtered sun and make it even more humid. Some plants that are doing really well there are the Norfolk Island pine, bromeliads, Sago and some of those little neanthabella palms you get at the fruit stands along the highway. They're getting huge! And, of course, the fern is really happy. My next plant for the porch will be a lady palm, which should do well (I hope).

I would love to have a fuschia, but I'm afraid the heat would kill it. How hot does your porch get, bedazzled?

I'm just passing through, but this came to mind:

Have you ever thought about covering the floor with a rug or wooden planks? Might do a lot towards improving the look of the place.

Dirt Dabber,
Your porch sounds a lot like my front porch in that it has a concrete floor which I HATE. I don't think we could put wood planks there because of the porch rail but I do plan to get a rug made from outdoor carpet. It faces south but gets quite a bit of humidity so it will have to be something that can be sprayed down but anything will be better that that old concrete!

Hi all, My suggestion for the concrete floor is to paint it in like large type checkers. Whatever colors that suits your fancy.
Linda

Speaking of porches...Do any of you know how to safely clean dirty with mildew, white wood porch posts? They have decorative corners.
Some people call them columns.
I can't afford to hire someone to clean and paint them right now and I'm not as agile as I once was...
Any suggestions will be appreciated.

I TOO HAVE A CEMENT PORCH..AND HATE THE FLOOR ALSO..MY PLANS ARE TO PAINT IT...AT FIRST I WANTED TO PAINT IT BRICK RED..BUT I GOT THIS GREAT IDEA FROM A DECORATORS MAGAZINE ( NOY SURE WHICH ONE AT THE MOMENT ) BUT THEY MADE A STENCIL THAT LOOKED LIKE ROCK ( DIFFERENT SHAPES ) AND DID IT SEVERAL SHADES OF GRAYS??BROWNS??..LOOKS LIKE YOU HAVE A STONE FLOOR..