mw: Please excuse my expression here and I am not trying to throw cold water on you but IMHO you are really barking up the wrong tree.
No offense taken, Jones. I'm asking 'cause I'm learning.
Thanks for the tips and, Sqwakbert, the pics.
Well, a general update as I went to my LFS last night and picked up some plants. At some point in the next week I'll try to post a few pics, but here's brief narrative of what I ended up with. To your point Jones, the good news is that they didn't have many "big" plants so I ended up with smaller specimens. I also decided against vals as I had read about their propensity to "melt" and they generally seemed a bit more difficult. So, I ended up getting the following:
3 java ferns, each with 6 - 8 leaves that are 3 - 6" in length. I attached these to driftwood
6 cryptocoryne spiralis that I planted approx 4" apart along the back (4) and right (2) perimeter of the tank.
1 anubias nana and 1 anubias coffeefolia that I planted in the middle sections of the tank in the substrate. They were potted in mesh, plastic pots. Per advice from the LFS, I kept them in these mesh pots in the tank; they told me that as the plants grew I'd eventually need to cut the pot away from the plant but until they were established to leave them as is. I did cut some of the plastic meshing away last night to give the roots more space to grow, but I generally kept the structure of the pot intact.
The root systems on all of the plants appears to be very good and the LFS took good care when handling/packaging the plants for me, IMO.
I purchased some root tabs that I put down where I planted the crypts and anubias. The LFS was out of Flourish (I have seen mentioned on AC as preferred) but I did get freshwater plant supplement by Kent Marine - not sure if this is OK??? I added a little last night, slightly less then the "recommended dose".
Still need to get timers for my light, that's on this weekend's to-do list.
Anyway, sorry if this is TMI. As always, I'm all ears for tips and suggestions.