Maybe the cure for the winter doldrums – brought on by shorter days, gray skies and brown gardens – is to bring the living inside.

The sparks of color in an orchid bloom, the scent of a lemon tree or the mere greenery of a simple philodendron can change a mood. Studies have shown that houseplants play a positive role in a person’s attitude by reducing stress and improving air quality.

When the home feels stuffy and stale, try adding a scented plant to put your olfactory senses into overdrive. Flora such as scented geraniums, lemon trees, almond trees, orange trees, peppermint plants, pineapple and chocolate herbs all create the illusion that spring is right outside the frosty paned glass.

I put out an SOS to see what the locals were growing in their homes and got a great response. People who had plants that were many decades old – that had been lugged from apartment to home and shifted from outside to inside as the seasons changed – wanted to share their stories of a special plant or a whole collection.

Island girl

Serena Hearne is originally from Trinidad. She grew up on a sugar cane estate among the ocean breezes and swaying palm trees.

Now Hearne finds herself in the middle of the United States. There are no oceans, no palms – and even if she climbed to the top of Mount Oread and squinted her eyes toward the horizon, she likely would find a field of dormant crops.

But Hearne has a glass conservatory on the south side of her home that is overflowing with banana trees, baby coconut trees, a huge ficus and almond trees, all of which are found in her native land.

A small forest of towering green houseplants greet visitors to the second floor of the House Building, 729 1/2 Mass. Carol Francis, owner of the building, tends the garden - which includes a ficus, a philodendron and a fiddle leaf fig tree - Tuesday beneath a large skylight.

“In Trinidad, the ficus grow enormous, like monsters just emerging from the earth. You cannot plant a ficus in Trinidad next to your house because the roots will pick the house up,” Hearne says. “I have moved a huge cactus that originally was rooted in my childhood yard, and this Norfolk pine came from that same garden in Trinidad.”

The conservatory is moist and steamy, reminding Hearne of her youth on the island.

She says her love of plants comes from two places:

“My grandmother, who would pick up every little stick and root it in tin cans – she had plants everywhere,” Hearne says. “The second, I suppose, is to say that some of us are just naturalists. We love the earth and ground and the outdoors. My father was a hunter; he’d spend hours in the jungle. He loved nature in a different way, I like to rebuild it.”

So when Hearne is wandering the aisles of big-box stores, her weakness strikes.

“I feel sorry for the plants in those big stores” she says. “I see where they live, and I think they must come home with me.”

Organic cabin

Margaret DeMarce lives deep in the country in a petite home heated by a wood-burning stove. She used to grow alfalfa sprouts, mung beans and sunflowers, but anymore she focuses on keeping her 100-plus houseplants alive and thriving.

DeMarce’s house is a sight. The front porch has little wind chimes made of bones and fossils, and there is a bug collection with winged, plump carcasses pinned to a board. She has a slew of found arrowheads, seed pods and rocks scattered about, drying in the sun or getting cleaned near the kitchen sink for some future creation.

“I’m a very organic decorator,” DeMarce says. “I use rocks, fossils, bones and plants. I can’t seem to abandon a living thing. I don’t have any pets, so my plants are the living beings I seem to be attracted to. In fact, I rarely purchase a plant. Many of them are given to me, or I’ll dig them up. I love cactuses; I’ll dig those up in the desert and bring them home.”

An assortment of towering green houseplants absorb light from a second-floor skylight in the House Building, 729 1/2 Mass. Carol Francis, owner of the building, tends the garden.

DeMarce even has a coconut palm that was started from a coconut a friend sent her while combing the beaches of California.

It generally takes the better part of a day for DeMarce to water her immense collection, with plants layered above and in front of one another. It’s a balancing act. As she plucks off the dead leaves and babies her flora, the bones clink outside in the autumn breeze.

Pet lover

Val Sheldon has a lot of living beings to love.

When you enter her small East Lawrence home, three dogs come bounding to greet you, multiple cats weave in between footsteps, and two birds squawk and whistle. Throw in a large houseplant collection, and the nurturing is endless.

Sheldon admits she has no earthly idea how she acquired her green thumb.

“I don’t know how I became interested in houseplants. My mom had plastic flowers, but now it is an addiction,” she says. “I like seeing things grow. They add so much character and warmth to a home. Plus it is an inexpensive interior design aspect.”

Sheldon’s home has many tiers and little rooms, all of which are accessorized with a large houseplant or two. It is her basement, however, where the flora show is really happening.

“The winter inspired me to create a grow room,” she says. “There are lemon trees, African violets, a pineapple that actually produced a pineapple, gardenia, mandevillas, jasmine, verbena and orchids, just to name a few. It is nice in here in the winter. I always have cut flowers, and you just sort of forget that it’s 2 degrees outside.”

Office space

When I walked into the old House Building in downtown Lawrence, I held onto the hand rail of the creaking, narrow steps as I climbed to the upper level. It began to get brighter, and as my view crested the top step there was a lovely little forest of houseplants. What a way to greet the workweek!

I don’t know whether Carol Francis, the owner of the building and green thumb, is aware, but houseplants are said to increase productivity and creativity in the work place.

Francis explains how the delightful growing area came to be.

“When I bought the decrepit House Building in 1978, the false ceiling hid the skylight above, which now provides not only light, but also a warming, nurturing and welcoming feeling,” she says. “These plants provide a calming influence in contrast with the high-energy work level of my tenants. I often overhear clients comment on how beautiful the foyer is, overflowing with flora. I’m proud of that.”

She should be.