properly planting?

next weekend i'll be changing my substrate over to sand as in wolfs topic, i'm intending to get shot of all my crappy plants (all those on the left) and the final plastic one (next to rock) keeping only my java fern (on the right) as i believe its doing rather well

my lfs sell the plants with the base wrapped in wool and then lead (i think). After removing both the wool and lead(?), will the new plants take hold in plain ol sand or will i need a peat layer in there too? also i've heard of potted plants, i assume this is a lot easier but being a beginner i dont have a clue what that means or how to do it...

I have sand in my tank and I have amazon swords. valliss and until this morning hornwort. All of these plants took very well to the sand and gave off lovely roots.