All potted plants need watering, but that's about all (IMHO - and I've quite a few potted plants that have lasted for years). Bamboo are best planted in pots as it stops them spreading, also Japenese maples are small trees and again I think are best in pots. For both you'll need big pots which can be very expensive. I recently found a large-ish pot - faux terracota (so not too heavy you can't lift or move it), quite nice and reasonably priced.
Grasses are great for pots too and you can put a bunch of differeny grasses together - also very resiliant to beeing forgotten about ;-)
You can get long lastign fertiliser and water retaining pellents - both of which are good to mix in with your soil as you plant them.
Good luck.