Thanks everyone for the feedback! I have taken steps to halt what seems to be a downward spiral, including trimming away the brown and curled foliage, protecting the plant from direct sunlight, and a more aggressive approach to drying out the soil. @terpguy: I inspected the trunk as you instructed, but could not find the symptoms you described. As I'm not ready to sound the death knell yet, I will continue to explore possible rejuvenation. @purpleinopp: The pictures are after the repot. Now that I know the name of the plant, I've been able to do some research, both on these forums and via Google. I've found my choice of pot and soil mixture are not ideal. Another repot will have to be done, as soon as the weather cooperates. The sphagnum layer on top was partly for moisture retention but mostly decorative; I have already removed it since it seemed counter productive to my goal of drying out the soil. Thanks again for helping a newbie! I will post updates.

Hey plant people! mr subjunctive, I think you nailed the first plant. It does have the same markings of warneckii. In anycase, I also vote dracaena. I'm absolutely curious about #3. I'll post the begonia in the begonia forum. Is there anyone who can id #3? I've been researching peperomia and haven't found anything similar, but thanks for the input seaecho1. I'll keep looking into peperomia sites.

Here is a message my sister sent me for more discription. Hello, it only has one trunk. The leaves growing off of it are coming from the trunk. It bumps out under the bark like a vein then the leaves grow out from that. It didn't have mites. I had to cut it because all of the top leaves died from wind damage being on Sue's(my other Sister) front porch(very open & bright sun) and the transport from Ma's to Sue's then Sue's to here. There was about a 2 feet of tree with no leaves. It looked horrible so I cut it off. Since then it has filled out nice like a bush. Before I cut it there was only one off shoot on the bottom of the trunk and the top leaves.

Thank you so much to each of you for identifying my plants. Yes, I am going to separate them and care for them. I love African Violets. When I first got this plant, it had purple flowers. The ficus elastica already has a new shoot. China Doll? I've never heard of that but it looks delicate and very pretty. Thanks again for all your help, I am going to enjoy them!