Mosinau, you many not even realize, but the entire opening post is about plants being killed by not drying quickly enough, and more water being added before they have dried. Roots need oxygen as well as moisture. Without both, they can rot and can't perform their job well, or at all once rot sets in. It may seem like a separate issue for each plant, but it sounds like one same issue to me. That is what the responses so far have been addressing. "varying watering habits(I view it as more of a chore now, while earlier I went by the website's instruction- every day)." That's way too often. When plants are dry, they need water. The amount of time it takes a particular pot to dry can vary, so a set schedule often does more harm than good. "Does having a nutrient source near the end accelerate the growth?" If this is all connected as one plant, nutrients obtained by one part will be shared with the whole plant. " My secondary question is about the micans only- its unusual leaves look like they catch a lot of dust. Is this bad and if so, how do I clean them off?" I put my plants outside in the rain when it's warm enough in the spring to clean off the winter dust. In general your focus seems to be making plants grow faster. To do that, the focus needs to start at the roots. No part of a plant can be healthy without healthy roots. In nature, there are many different types of soil and climate environments. In a house, there's usually one climate. As far as the soil part goes, the best thing we can do is offer something that provides moisture without rotting roots. "I'd like to eventually make up a pot that combines all my plants of this type." That sounds cool, I do that too. Plants with similar light and moisture requirements should do well together in the same pot. Eventually one might crowd the others out, at which time you could trim the bigger one, or redo the whole thing and kind of start over. "Schefflera(maybe Luseane). I know this can work in my house because my parents have one already and it is our most magnificent plant. I got one myself, unsure of how it propagates and not wanting to sacrifice any of the main one, but after a while of decent growth, it just sort of rotted away." The roots likely rotted. "Like with the Pileas, I had been following the watering instructions on the Exotic Angel Plants website, which called for watering every 2 or 3 days, I believe. I also had it in my room, which has somewhat lower light." They will tell you what they think you want to hear. Everyone wants some magic plant that can look great and even grow in some dark boring corner. Sure, there are a few of these out there, but the 'low light' designation on EA website shouldn't be given much weight, especially by someone like yourself who wants plants to grow at a visible pace as fast as they can. I put Scheff outside in the sun, all day (when plants aren't in the house hiding from winter.) While...

Hear is a link that might help or you can go to this sights search page and type in your question there. www.ehow.com/how_2155646_grow-pomegranates.html

Ok. I went looking for some of the seed mixes in "plantable" cards and here's some I found from different vendors... #1 Mountain Garland, Siberian Wallflower, Shasta Daisy, Chinese Houses, Lance-leaved Coreopsis, Purple Coneflower, Spurred Snapdragon, Forget-Me-Not, Johnny-Jump-Up, Blue Pimpernel, Chinese Forget-me-not, European Columbine, Annual Candytuft, Sweet William, Foxglove, Annual Baby's Breath, Baby Blue Eyes and Corn Poppy. #2 Red Corn Poppy, Corn Poppy, Spurred Snapdragon, Catchfly, English Daisy, Showy Evening Primrose, Gold Yarrow, Roman Chamomile, Tussock Bellflower, Foxglove, Fringed Sagewort, White Yarrow, Red Yarrow, Monkeyflower and Creeping Thyme #3 Sweet William Pinks Dianthus barbatus Rocket Larkspur Delphinium ajacis Candytuft Iberis umbellata Baby Blue Eyes Nemophila menziesii Corn Poppy Papaver rhoeas Forget-Me-Not Myosotis sylvatica Wallflower Cheiranthus allionii Columbine Aquilegia caerulea/A. vulgaris Blue Flax Linum perenne lewisii Zinnia Zinnia elegans Lemon Mint Monarda citriodora Five Spot Nemophila maculata Catchfly silene armeria English Daisy bellis Perennis Sweet Alyssum lobularia maritima Spurred Snapdragon linaria maroccana Corn Poppy papaver rhoeas Black Eyed Susan rudbeckia hirta #4 Catchfly silene armeria English Daisy bellis Perennis Sweet Alyssum loblaria maritima Spurred Snapdragon linaria maroccana Corn Poppy papaver rhoes Black Eyed Susan rudbeckia hirta And so on. Google has more but these are some of the top hits. These lists may inspire other suggestions.... While your card could be of a different mix, I suspect that your plants are pretty common garden plants - that is what most of these mixes feature. And I think it is most likely one of the plants already suggested to you. Conditions and the youngness of the plant could make the leaves not appear like mature plant leaves - which you will find mostly when you search for images of the plant. Keep watching. I'm sure it will eventually tell you what it is! FataMorgana

That last pic is too cute for words, nice work!