check out the available choices at a good retail nursery in your area. Lots of plant choices, and Sasanqua camellias, Foxtail Asparagus, Blechnum gibbum, Aucuba japonica, Abutilon cultivars, Cyclamen for winter color and Impatiens for summer annual color would all be easy choices. For a miniature Christmas tree, I might suggest using the Norfolk Island Pine, Araucaria heterophylla, which can be found at any Home Depot or Lowes this time of year, and is easy to keep year round as an outdoor container plant.

I can't help you with local San Jose area nurseries, but suggest you look in the yellow pages, or google San Jose Nurseries. If you don't mind a road trip, I would highly recommend a visit to Sierra Azul Nursery in Watsonville, which also has a nice sculpture/demonstration garden and is located on the Hecker Pass highway that connects with Gilroy at 101, and is down in the flats once you get close to the fairgrounds.

It really depends on the size of your containers, if your patio is covered, and your personal taste. The recommendations from Bahia are good for larger plants. A Japanese maple would probably do well in that location, although they are dormant right now.

For smaller plants maybe Liriope, Clivia, Cymbidum orchids (for color now), Satsuki azaleas, ivy geranium, fuchsia, Heucheras, Spider plants, Daphne (love the fragrance!), Horsetail (Equisetum hymale)

Just seeing this as I never got an e-mail notification for the replies... Thank you very much, bahia and wanda! I'll be checking these out in the catalogs and keep my eyes open for them when visiting a nursery.