Many plants will grow emersed quite nicely. The dry start method actually works based on taking submerged plants and growing them emersed in a humid, unfilled tank and then filling it.
It's worth noting that these plants will undergo a melt when they are submerged as their cuticle essentially suffocates them, but they will recover. This pain is well worth it in the case of some of the plants that are more difficult to get rooted in a nice growth form, such as HC and glosso.
I've kept HC, glosso, various mosses, anubias, java fern, staurogyne, P. helferi and I believe a bit of crypt in emersed growth trays. Bacopa will grow in hanging baskets. I'm not sure if ludwigia will play nice; if it does, odds are it will creep like bacopa.
Here's a couple articles/posts on dry starting your tank:
http://www.barrreport.com/articles/3594-dry-start-up-method-planted-aquariums.html
http://www.barrreport.com/estimative-index/4266-hybrid-methods-fusing-dry-start-excel-non-co2.html
You'll also find this years December issue of Freshwater and Marine Auqarium Magazine has another article by Tom in it. I'm not typically a magazine subscriber, but the entire issue was dedicated to plants so I went out and bought a copy. There's a number of articles by big names in the hobby; it's not just a handful of crank writers re-wording what they gleaned from forums.
-Philosophos