cactus.

A lot of nice plants will take sun in a container if they can get enough water. Can you hook up drip for them or can you water daily? (For many types, that would be morning and evening by hand.) Some old faithfuls that come to mind are red bird of paradise, lantanas of all colors, little john, natal plum, ruellia/dwarf & regular, pygmy palms, weeping yucca, red & yellow yucca...not sure what size you're looking for or if you want to bother keeping plants trimmed back (or want to deal with the litter) but oleander & yellow bells do ok, too. Just mostly depends on how often you're willing to water. To me, lantana, yuccas, ruellia and BoP kept trimmed small looks great in a tropical-like setting and are pretty much furnace proof. I'm sure others will mention other plants, too.

Your pond area sounds pretty. Good luck. :)

I have some trailing rosemary by my pond and it looks real nice as it trails over the edge. It is always green, and once a year it has pretty little blue flowers on it.

If you can swing it, it sounds like a good place for doing some trellis and vines. Other than that, I second the hesperaloe and tecoma stans.

Good luck!

RR mentioned several varieties of tropical looking plants..in addition skyflower, thevetia, mexican BOP, cannas,blue potato bush,hop bush,texas olive, asparagus or foxtail fern,blue hibiscus and castor bean(poisonous) also thrive well in summer.
You can consider putting up an umbrella as well..lot of them are pretty attractive.
Consider training fast growing large shrubs into small trees..yellow BOP,thevetia or Texas olive.

Thanks all - I am going to look all of these up.
I actually do have a drip system out there - it runs 2 times a day. I have an asparagus fern that was doing great until last week, now yellowing - and some salvia that are alive but not happy. My elephants food(??) is looking good.
My aptenia is alive, also not happy.
I have 2 natal plum that I am hoping will get enough to throw some shade.
I actually have pondered building an arbor over the pond and growing some vines. Maybe that's a really good option, it would give enough shade for the containers.
I am going to investigate all the options you gave me. I think some of them may be too big for my area, but maybe not - it is definitely worth a try isn't it? Can't do worse than the problems I am having now.

My experience parallels yours as well. Aptenia does not like full sun all day. Consider moving it.
Don't worry about asparagus fern--they react to the extreme heat but does go back to green when the weather cools down.
Salvias don't like full sun all day long.
Careful with plant choices around pond since some choices will make you clean out your pond all the time.

How much water are your plants actually getting? It's not clear from "two times a day". That could be too much, or too little to often, depending.

Also could be a clogged emitter on the fern. If the yellowing is not due just to heat stress as Usha mentioned or overwatering, I would bottom water it right away to try to try to save it, and then adjust the emitter/watering time so it gets more water. Like Roo mentioned, without knowing the drip details (emitter sizes, duration of drip, etc.) it's hard to say...but with your elephant doing well on the same drip system it's a clue that the fern probably needs more water. It's hard to overwater a container fern in full summer sun.

Just to mention another plant that does well in a container...the umbrella plant/sedge is really tropical looking. It can grow in standing water but also does fine in a container with drying a bit between waterings.

key word: container
today at 4 pm we measured the temperature of some of the soil in our containers in the full sun at our nursery (they had been watered twice already throughout the day and were still a little damp.) 108 degrees. After we watered our normal third time, the temp dropped to an acceptable 96. We water 3 times a day since containers in the sun get VERY HOT and we need to water, not for moisture, but to cool the roots, which will die otherwise. Does your water run out hot when you water your containers?

I have 3 rosemary along side my pond, and I love to see it dripping over the edge. Another one that blooms yellow ro orange in the summer is bulbine frutences (sp?). It has blue/green spikey succulent leaves that look nice all year. I dont' even have it on a drip. Ruella Katy is nice in purple or pink. I also like the blue sage- small blue green leaves with pretty blue flowers. I dont' know how old your pond is, but I have found that some plants need a couple of years to come to full glory. Find a good nursery who can lead you in the right direction.