What makes plants grow?

There are a few house plants we have - a money tree, some lucky bamboo, and we would get more as I really like them, however, the other ones we've tried over the years never lasted. What makes plants grow? I know it's sunshine & water, but we did that, and lost a few - is there some trick to it that I don't know?

different plants have different properties, it all depends on how much sunshine they need, actually some plants can die with tooo much sunlight and too much water, believe it or not......

well the plants require not only sunlight and water, but a constant rich source of Nitrogen(good thick soil) that is really not too abundant in the inner atmosphere of our closed abodes......The only time plants need CO2 is when they are performing photosynthesis, and believe it or not they're not doing that ALLL day long, they use O2 also for that purpose.

With most of our plants these days scientifically altered and pumped with artificial genetics, it is really hard to tell what might do what, but the right combination of fertilizer, soil, sunlight, water and open space will work with a particular plant........

but some plants are victim of bad genes also, so their characteristics although may seem like you are doing something totally wrong might not be your fault at all, because all of the plants we buy in the store are chemically and genetically altered and moving towards the corporational goal of ARTIFICIAL EARTH........

hope this helps, I didn't list the cycles of plant cells because I thought I would bore you to death with them(citric acid cycle and the krebs cycle I believe)......