good plants that can survive exposed to high sunlight?

If you're trying to keep the medicine wheel pure (ie. herbs for medicinal purposes) you might want to include bergamot, borage, yarrow, purple sage and chamomile. All of these are colourful and still keep your wheel medicinal.

As a general rule, when you look at plants, they will tell you what they need for light.

Plants with gray or silver leaves, (like lavender and lambs ears), tend to tolerate a lot of sunlight.

Also plants with small leaves, like thyme, rosemary, russian sage (perovskia), etc. also like sunlight.

Your question does not mention geographic location, and that is pretty important when selecting plants...for hardiness.

So I am answering this in a general way.

Herbs make sense in a medicine wheel garden.

Lavendula, (lavender munstead, hidcote, annual french l)

Thyme

tarragon

marjoram

chives

Sage, (regular and perovskia)

Nepeta, (cat mint), six hills giant is large, some smaller

Mentha, (the mints, chocolate, pineapple, orange, etc)

*be careful with mint, it is invasive and should be contained

Rosemary, (annual in some parts of the country)

Parsley, (annual in most parts)

Basil, (the purple is very attractive with silvery plants)

Artemesia, (silver mound, and "wormwood")

Fennel

Savory

and other herbs:

sweet cicely (needs moisture, but not too much nitrogen)

bay

lemon verbena

lemon balm

lovage

angelica

winter savory

bergamot (monarda)

hyssop

papaver (poppies, for seeds on bread etc)

iceplant (can be used in salads or cooked like spinach/chard

most chile peppers

Other (perennials) for decoration:

Cerastium tomentosum (silver leaved snow-in-summer)

Iberis (candy tuft)

Stachys, (lambs ears)

Echeveria, (hens and chicks)

Sedum, (some very nice low and high varieties)

If you are looking for shrubs, the same idea applies....lighter leaves and smaller leaves. If you are in the west/south west, then you have many shrubs to choose from and might check out Michael Dirr's books on trees and shrubs. He is an excellent resource for woody plants.

raspberries

The book "Perennials for American Gardens" Clausen/Ekstrom is a good resource for perennials.

Cactii always do well in high sunlight.

The key with any garden is always what temperate zone you are in. The sunlight is only a factor, and the water, humidity and change in weather can be others.

Common plants for medicine wheel gardens include muskrat root, blueberry shrubs, moccasin flower, cardinal flower, yellow dock, blue cohosh.

I think the color of the flowers is not as much a part of the enthno-cultural use of a medicine wheel garden, as they are used both for harvesting healing herbs and for meditation, but since this seems to be for an aesthetic use primarily, here are some good, common hardy flowers for north american climes:

Sunflowers

Adenophora Remotiflora

Giant Blue Hyssop (Agastache Foeniculum)

Alcea rosea (Fringed Petticoat Hollyhock)

Roundheaded Leek

Mount Atlas Daisy

Bluebonnets

Indian Paintbrush

Lavender

Yarrows

Daylillies

These are suggestions for various climes and soil conditions in north america, but this website might give some guidance:

http://www.bbg.org/gar2/topics/design/handbooks/su...

Knowing your climate zone is vital when planning a garden of any kind.

Lantana( there is yellow ,red, radiation,orange, white, confetti,purple lantana and more colors) Lillies, Gold Star Esperanza, Sage, Lavendula, Butterfly Bush, Luna Hibiscus

butterfly bush they are beautiful and esy to grow but get about 8 ft tall and two-three feet wide

Daisies.

many varieties of cactus can hang in the toughest conditions and provide a bounty of color.

cacti and succulents, also Alpines and herbs.

ALAMANDA-HIBISCUS-ROSES-IRIS- JASMINE