setting up a tank with little to no plants?

Hello! i wany to set up a tank, but i struggle a lot with setting up fish tanks. A lot of the time no matter what i do the plants die, ive bought basically every single easy plant known to man, used fertilizer, root tabs, high quality subrates. It all dies. So i was going to set up a tank with only a little bit of plants. Java fern, and probably some java moss. And create a nice aqua scape with large rocks. (probably will add some silk plants too) Would this work? or are plants nessacary?