Plants for a cold windy balcony

[BillywigStings]

As above, I have a small, windy balcony and we are facing the sea. Most of our neighbours don’t do anything with their balconies at all but we do sit out on ours most of the year except in the middle of winter so it would be nice to have some plants out there. Ideally I would like flowers of some sort but I haven’t got a clue what would survive. I’d also like some climbing plants as we share a side with our neighbours so it would be nice for some privacy. There’s also a column for plants to climb, and the wall where I would like to have plants climbing. I was thinking terracotta pots would be best instead of plastic? Complete novice here sorry.

I would really appreciate any tips!

Look for plants that tolerate sea side conditions. The air will be salty as well as windy.
Cultivated varieties of thrift America, clump up and have purple, pink and white flowers. They can flower for most of the year if you cut off the spent flowers. Honeysuckle is a climber often found by the sea, a cultivated slow growing variety might suit your climber requirements.
Roses also do quite well, so a patio rose or two would be nice.
In general most rockery plants grow by the sea, so cultivated varieties of stonecrops would look nice in a large gravel container.
This sounds like a fun project.

Escallonia and dwarf Mugo pine.

Thank you! So excited to get started!

If you get sun for most or even half of the day most plants will do ok. You could try a clematis to climb up for privacy. The early montana species are tough, the later ones not so much.