Plants can look amazing in an aquarium but you have to get a few balances right. You should have a good substrate, good lighting and carbon dioxide injected into the water. A substrate that has the right qualities for plants is Laterite it helps plants grow well but can set you back quite a bit so I would avoid unless you want to pay a small fortune. You should have lighting that is suitable for plants and helps them grow, and ordinary light will not do! Reflectors are a good idea too as they can double the light outage and increase the level of growth. I would recommend using 2-3 watts of electricity to every gallon in your aquarium. You can inject Carbon Dioxide into your aquarium water to improove the plants vigour and increase their growth rate. A simple Diy Carbon Dioxide Injecting System can be found here.
To find out information about a small selection of common aquatic plants for the home aquarium can be found below: